Pages of Destiny
by riespark
Summary: As the group travels through the Great Western Sea, Sheba begins to experience strange symptoms-lightheadedness, voices in her head, fainting. She can't make heads or tails of it, but it's stressing out everyone, not just her. She certainly doesn't have time to be thinking about Felix, and what he may or may not feel for her, on top of all that... [Felix/Sheba, Lighthouseshipping]
1. Chapter 1

Sheba had been a lonely child. Reading minds meant she could manipulate people very easily, and while being catered to constantly was nice at first, she found she wasn't much a fan of how guilty it made her feel. She often found herself retreating to her room to read, after borrowing books out of Lalivero's small library, or stealing them from her foster mother's shelves: Romance novels far too smutty for someone her age to understand, and science fiction books with morals and hidden themes, and mystery books where she always had to skip ahead to the end just to see if she was right.

The most prominent books, though, were the fairy tales—fantastical stories of knights in shining armor, glittering castles, and princesses locked away in towers. Later, when she found _herself_ locked away in a tower, books became a retreat for her once again. As a captive, she was rarely allowed to leave without an escort, so she asked her caretakers to bring her as many books as they could find. She'd hated that room, but some small part of her still regretted having to leave all those books behind.

She always resented the leading ladies in those old fairy tales, even though she was told she should try to emulate them and the way they were quiet, demure, and kind. While she was a captive herself she held on to every ounce of anger that she could, channeling it into a snippy attitude that she unleashed on practically everyone who spoke to her.

The knights and the princes, on the other hand, she found much more interesting. They could go from cunning strategist on the battlefield to benevolent lover in the space of a breath. They fought gracefully with swords, and could sweep their partner away into a ballroom dance just as well. Painfully eloquent and passionate, the knights in her stories could talk strategy in war meetings just as well as they could proclaim their love for their princess. Fairy tale knights were also very, very good at kissing.

Sheba wasn't sure, in light of all that, exactly why she fell for Felix.

He was too quiet, for one thing. The most passionate and angry she had ever seen him was on top of Venus Lighthouse, fighting for her freedom, and after that he became even more withdrawn. He mostly only spoke up when he was asked to make a decision. Any guesses at his opinion would have to be confirmed with a Mind Read, and although he'd given her permission to do that whenever she pleased, she didn't quite feel right about it.

His fighting style wasn't elegant, either. He was rough around the edges, cared more about function rather than form. It was only later that she realized the similarities between Felix's no-frills fighting style and Saturos's, remembering what little Felix had told her about his time in Prox. They were all fierce warriors, he'd said, relishing in the glory of the fight and the blood of their enemies. Felix took no such enjoyment from fighting, so the only thing that was left to show through was his brute strength. She didn't think he'd be a particularly adept dancer—he carried himself well, but was prone to stumbling, as though (in spite of his age) he hadn't gotten used to the length of his limbs yet.

And kissing... Well, honestly, Sheba didn't think he was interested in kissing her, so she'd never find out. But to be fair, she'd tried to hide her own interest in him as well, figuring he'd probably rather focus on the quest.

Felix was rugged, nothing like the clean-cut princes in the stories—but he was tall, and his dark hair and eyes gave him something of an air of mystery. The mayor's wife in Madra said he had kind eyes, and Sheba found herself agreeing. He always took mercy on the weak and less fortunate ones, going out of the way to help a young boy trapped in a cave just as unhesitatingly as he helped two separated penguins reach each other on some tiny nondescript island. And then of course there was the matter of him throwing himself from the aerie of a lighthouse in an attempt to save her life... That wasn't something she could easily forget.

She thanked him at the inn in Daila, the first quiet moment their group had had in days, but he quietly brushed it off. She couldn't even begin to guess at his reasoning—part of her wanted to think that it was because he loved her, but the rest of her dismissed it as unhealthy romanticism, and she went about her crush in silence, for the most part. Sheba spent all her personal allowance on romance novels, and Jenna was the only one to shoot her knowing smirks when Sheba came back to the ship with yet another paperback in her hands. She'd end up staying up too late reading those romance novels the day after she bought them, blowing out her own candle hours after Jenna had gone to sleep in the room they shared.

After one such night of late reading, she drags herself into the ship's kitchen once the sun through their porthole window is too bright to ignore, flopping down into a chair and then dropping her head on top of her folded arms.

"Something got you down?" Piers asks, leaning against the counter next to the tiny stove.

"No, I'm just tired," she answers into the table. It was true enough.

"Well, hopefully some food will wake you right up then," he says, smiling brightly. "Felix insisted on doing the cooking this morning."

Sheba perks up at that. Piers is a talented cook, but Felix is a connoisseur—or at least, as much of one as he can be with limited supplies while they're traveling. Anywhere they went, if someone had a good meal on the table, he would suddenly become a lot more verbal. He looked around at people's kitchens and asked the home's occupants what they did to get their vegetables so crisp, what was their preferred way to season meat, how to keep one ingredient from overwhelming the rest. He'd made polite small-talk (something he despised) with an older couple in Madra for nearly thirty minutes, just to flatter the wife enough to get her to write down her battered mushroom recipe.

_That's something those romance novels never got right,_ Sheba thinks. _All those princes expected the women to do all the housework, but there's not much better than a man who can cook._

Right on cue, Felix reenters the kitchen, looking only slightly ridiculous with a light pink apron thrown over his white undershirt. His hair is tied back in a higher ponytail than he usually wears it, and it really brings out his resemblance to his sister. He gently elbows Piers out of the way, and stirs whatever's in the pot on the stove. He tastes it and pauses, pursing his lips, then turns to Sheba, holding out the ladle. "Try this. I tried to improvise and make my own pho, just with what we've got on hand. We have to go back to Champa and ask Obaba what she does with hers, I don't think I simmered the broth long enough."

She stands and joins him in front of the stove, leaning over to look. It definitely looks like the pho they'd sampled in Champa, with white noodles and browned beef in a cloudy broth, colored by fresh vegetables.

"Ah, careful," he says, reaching out and pushing her hair behind her ear. "Don't want it in the food."

Her mind reading abilities mean that she's very perceptive to peoples' emotions even without using Psynergy, and her instincts say he meant nothing by the hair touch. She feels her stomach flip nonetheless. "Right," she says, accepting the ladle he'd offered and taking a taste. "I think it's a little bland, it could use more salt."

"I thought so too," he says, turning to grab the small dispenser of salt they had to add a bit more to the soup. Somehow she feels proud of herself for coming up with the same answer he had. It's like they're on the same wavelength.

Breakfast is as delicious as she'd anticipated, the pho accompanied by some bread and fresh juice from fruits they had. As they eat, Kraden looks over the maps and decides that their next stop should be in a town in the nearby continent of Hesperia, where they can stock up on weapons and supplies.

Saturos and Menardi had been the previous owners of the maps, which they'd mostly drawn themselves based on information from old trading routes between Prox and other places in the Great Western Sea. As such, it wasn't always the most accurate, but it was certainly the best they were going to get. As they traveled, the five of them had taken to completing the maps, scribbling notes in the margins and next to continents. Sheba's current favorite was a recent one in Jenna's messy scrawl, where she'd written next to Lemuria: "4 out of 10, didn't live up to the hype. Conservato can drown in a whirlpool." Piers had written a small smiley face next to her note with the word "Agreed."

She volunteers to do the dishes after they were all done eating breakfast, but Felix insists on cleaning up after himself, so Sheba excuses herself out to the deck, where she climbs the ladder on the side of the mast. Standing on the lookout tower was the best place to feel the wind in her hair. She could tell more from the wind than Piers could, despite his sailing background, and it had come in handy quite a few times when she was able to direct them towards a town or away from a storm.

Sure enough, Kraden was right about the new continent. The ship was anchored at the moment, but Felix had been sailing all night and it couldn't be more than a half hour's journey away. There are plenty of mountains, though, and she can't see any sort of town. Something prickles in the back of her mind, fragments of images flashing through her brain, and she squints uselessly into the sun in an attempt to refine them. Some kind of a green stone...and a stick? No, not quite… She gasps aloud as it comes to her. It's the Shaman's Rod.

Kraden had told them about the legends in this area after they'd acquired the Shaman's Rod from the Jupiter Adept in Isaac's party. The Shaman's Rod was, according to legend, traded for the Hover Jade, which itself was said to have some tie to Jupiter Lighthouse.

She makes up her mind right then. They _need_ that Hover Jade. If there's any place in the whole of Weyard where she _might_ find a clue to her past, her future, anything about herself, it's Jupiter Lighthouse. And if they need the Hover Jade to get there, she'll steal it from them herself if she has to.

She climbs back down the ladder, skipping the last few rungs in her hurry, breezing through the kitchen and down to the bedrooms. Kraden calls after her to ask what's wrong, but she ignores him. The rod rests in the corner of her side of the room she shares with Jenna, and she picks it up, spinning it once or twice in her hands. She imagines she can feel it humming, as though it's alive, and grins. Finally it's going to have a purpose!

She takes off upstairs again, carrying the rod. "What's that for?" Jenna asks, still sitting at the kitchen table finishing her breakfast.

"I just have a feeling we'll need it at this town we're going to," Sheba says, grinning.

Jenna turns to Kraden. "Where are we going, anyway?"

"The continent called Hesperia," he says, squinting through his glasses at the map spread out over the kitchen table. "There were some murmurings of a village a ways inland, but it looks as though there's some traveling required in order to get there."

Felix walks upstairs, fully dressed this time, pulling his hair back again into a cleaner, lower ponytail. The first thing he notices is the rod in Sheba's hands. "Is that the Shaman's Rod?"

"She thinks we'll need it for the town we're going to next," Jenna says.

Felix shoots a questioning look at Sheba, and she just shrugs. "It's hard to explain," she says, and he rolls his eyes.

"Situation normal, then," he quips, and heads out to the deck to prepare for their short journey to land, followed by Piers. Sheba trails along after them and climbs to the top of the lookout tower again, setting the Shaman's Rod down at the base of the ladder. Watching their approach to the new continent is much more interesting from the higher vantage point, and she'd learned that it made it easier to avoid helping.

They arrive at a small beach, and from where she stands Sheba can see a small cave nearby and guesses that's where they're headed. Upon disembarking, Jenna notices a sign next to the cave, confirming Sheba's suspicions.

"Kraden, can you read this? It just looks like a bunch of random lines to me," Jenna says as they examine it.

"Hmm," he drones, adjusting his spectacles. "Almost. Let me think for a moment."

As he flips through a small reference book he'd hidden somewhere in his robes, Sheba looks harder at the sign. She's not sure what Jenna meant by the words looking like random lines—to her they almost look like they could be words.

"Shi-nen?" she guesses, and Kraden looks over at her, delighted.

"Very close, Sheba. It says something along the lines of, 'The village of Shamans is through this cave.' I believe it's some sort of a derivative of Ancient Anemosian…" He launches into a description of how the ancient language had morphed into its more modern form, but Sheba barely hears him. Out of the blue, she's feeling faint and a little shaky, despite having eaten plenty that morning.

Piers's hand on her shoulder brings her back down to earth. "Are you all right?"

"Never better," she says, smiling brightly at him before chasing after Jenna, who had already headed into the cave. The dizzy feeling is already fading, hardly even a buzz in the back of her mind, so she decides to ignore it.

The cave itself is fairly cut-and-dry. They're in and out in under an hour. The town on the other side, however...

"Is it just me, or does it seem really, really quiet?" Sheba asks in a whisper to the group at large.

"Yeah," Jenna answers, also in a whisper. "And everyone is glaring at us."

"Beg your pardon, but this is the Shaman Village, correct?" Kraden asks, seemingly choosing a person at random. The woman glances at him, and then looks back at the person she was standing next to, making no attempt to answer, or even speak to her companion.

Sheba slips up behind the villager, faking an accidental brush against her arm.

_Until the chief says otherwise, nobody will talk to these outsiders. It's the law._ Sheba winces a little at the outright annoyance she feels in the woman's thoughts, but this chief sounds like a person they need to be looking for. She walks back through town to the entrance, where she finds Felix standing near a weapons and armor tent, looking frustrated.

"They're closed up, just like everywhere else in town," he complains, voice pitched lower in reaction, she assumes, to the quiet in the rest of the town. "Inn's open, but the innkeeper holds up signs rather than speaking."

"Maybe he doesn't want to sacrifice any potential profit," Sheba offers, and he shrugs.

"We haven't done anything wrong, so I can't figure out why they're treating us like this. And I checked with Kraden earlier, they _definitely_ speak our language…so it's not like they can't understand us."

"Actually," she says, grabbing his sleeve and pulling him off to the side where they'll be out of earshot and can speak at a more normal volume, "I read some lady's mind. We're outsiders, and apparently their chief made a law that unless he says so, they can't talk to us."

Felix raises an eyebrow. "Then why would they have the signs to direct us towards the town? …Very interesting. Thank you, that's useful."

Even the lightest praise from him makes her feel kind of fluttery. "Yeah, so I think if we could just find this guy, we could get this all sorted out."

He nods, eyes already scanning the town. "Let's try the sanctum next. The Great Healers are usually from out of town, he might actually speak to us."

The Great Healer does speak to them, and he gives them the name of the chief as well: Moapa.

"He lives in the large house at the top of the hill. Oh, but I'd be careful, he doesn't like to be disturbed..." the healer calls after them as they exit. He is ignored.

The five of them approach the large building together, and after some hesitation, Felix walks up to the front door and raises a hand to knock. Before he can actually do so, however, the door slams open, revealing three powerful-looking men. Moapa brusquely introduces himself (Sheba's happy that he's at least speaking to them, the cold shoulder is one of her biggest pet peeves), and instructs them to leave town if they have no business there.

Sheba clears her throat and steps forward, raising the Shaman's Rod so he can see it. It takes Moapa a moment before he recognizes what it is, and his eyes grow wide with shock.

"That's the Shaman's Rod!" he exclaims. "Have you outlanders come to claim the Hover Jade?"

Sheba nods, probably a bit more emphatically than she should have, and Moapa squints at her.

"Well, that's a shame," he says, after a pause. "We won't be giving the Hover Jade to you! We were instructed to give it only to the descendants of Yegelos, the hero of Contigo, and you clearly are not Contigan."

She sees red, and immediately lashes out at him. "That's preposterous! We're returning your rod! We've come so far already!" _And you're __**not**__ going to take my destiny away from me!_

"And what difference does it make if we're from Contigo or not!?" Thank the Elements, Jenna's always got her back.

Even Piers speaks up: "Make no mistake about it, we are the intended recipients of the stone of Yegelos." Sheba imagines he hasn't heard the story of the rod's origins—if anything, Isaac's Jupiter Adept friend was the actual chosen one. But Sheba isn't about to say anything and lessen their chances.

"Is there no other way we can get our hands on the Hover Jade?" Kraden asks, and Moapa again shakes his head.

"No. You ask the impossible."

Out of the blue, one of his men speaks up. "What about the test? The way of the vanishing sand?"

Moapa immediately smiles, and there's something sharp in his eyes that Sheba doesn't like. "Yes, if you outlanders truly wish to claim the Hover Jade, you must earn it. If have the courage, follow me!"

_He's a little bit of a drama queen,_ Sheba thinks to herself as he swaggers past them with his two subordinates. She shakes her head once he's far enough out of earshot. "If you'd told us there was a test, we'd have been out of your hair by now."

"What kind of a test is this?" Jenna wonders, eyebrows furrowed.

Kraden pats her reassuringly on the shoulder. "I understand that you're a little concerned, but unless you try it, you'll never know!" He smiles. "Give it your best, everyone!"

"Easy for you to say," Felix mutters under his breath as they follow after Moapa. Jenna snorts, and Piers has to duck his head to hide his smile.

The "test" turns out to be one of the whirlwind stones from Air's Rock, in front of a massive wall of sand. Sheba shoots a disbelieving look at Felix—too easy! Felix smiles back at her, and makes a "go ahead" gesture.

"To inherit the stone of Yegelos—" Moapa begins, but Sheba's already stepped forward and cast Whirlwind on the massive stone. Closing her eyes and tilting her head back, she enjoys the momentary rush of the wind whipping around her, and reopens her eyes to find Moapa and his men staring at her slack-jawed.

"Impossible... The sand disappeared!"

"But she's just a girl!"

Felix starts to laugh but quickly aborts it into a cough. "_Just_ a girl," he repeats amusedly, softly enough that Sheba thinks she might be the only one who heard him, and shakes his head. She turns back to Moapa.

"Well, you wanted the sand to vanish, so...there you are, that's your challenge done! Now hand over the Hover Jade."

He holds up a hand. "There is more you must do before you can earn the stone... You must reach the end of Trial Road."

"I thought only the chosen hero could travel the road. So that'd be him," says one of Moapa's men, gesturing towards Felix. As if Sheba needs another reason to be angry. She hears Jenna gasp too, so at least she's not alone.

"What, are you saying I can't be the chosen hero?" Sheba snaps. Moapa actually balks at that, flinching back in surprise at her tone.

"Our heroes have always been men," he begins, but Sheba cuts him off. She can feel little angry sparks dancing from her fingertips, and while she'd normally attempt to suppress it, she doesn't quite feel so careful around Moapa.

"I don't like your attitude, mister! I can be every bit as heroic as some guy!"

"That may be true, but you must respect our customs. It's the same in Contigo, you know." Moapa's men shrug in unison and begin to walk off, and Moapa follows. Sheba actually stomps her foot in frustration.

"Wait," Kraden says, and for some reason his voice stops them. Maybe it's just the fact that he's a man. "Moapa, what were you just saying about Trial Road? If they beat it, won't their names join the ranks of your heroes?"

Jenna nods, her face still flushed a little with anger. "Kraden's right. It shouldn't matter if a girl does it, all that matters is that we finish!"

"Unless you're afraid a girl like me might become your town's newest hero," Sheba says, unable to resist one last jibe. The three men turn to each other, discussing amongst themselves.

Eventually, Moapa looks back at Felix, then at Piers, pointedly ignoring the girls. "Trial Road is a difficult one, and when you reach the top, a battle awaits you. It's difficult even for me, so I expect you will find it quite impossible—especially your women. Still interested?"

Felix and Piers, to their credit, both turn to Sheba and Jenna before nodding their assent. "We're in. All four of us," Felix says.

"You seem confident, but it is your ignorance speaking," Moapa says, shaking his head. He leads them to Trial Road, and after an explanation of the rules, instructs them to choose a side. Sheba doesn't quite understand why the removal of armor *throughout is necessary—they're already racing through a puzzle-filled cave and then fighting at the end! B/ut Felix doesn't seem concerned, so she lets it go. This is a test meant for legends, after all—they'll just have to measure up.


	2. Chapter 2

Felix chooses a side, and turns to ask the others for input but is abruptly stopped. "You've made your choice," Moapa says. "The more difficult path of the two, it seems."

"So we're making it easy on you? You're welcome," Sheba says, but Moapa scoffs and turns away, joining his two teammates at the starting line of the other path.

Kraden clears his throat. "I'm sure I wouldn't be able to keep up if I followed along, but please allow me to count you off."

Moapa gruffly allows it, as Sheba, Jenna, and Piers join Felix at the other start line. Jenna tugs at her hair to tighten her ponytail, a nervous gesture that she'd been informed would probably damage her hair, but continued to do anyway. Sheba squints at the cave-like door opneing in front of them, trying to see inside and get a hint for what awaits them. She almost misses Kraden counting down, it's only Felix launching from the spot next to her that spurs her into movement as well.

The instant they enter the first room, Felix's eyes are darting around, mapping the place out.

"Piers, those posts," he says, and Piers pauses, then snaps his fingers and says "Oh!", moving to Pound the white posts into the ground using Psynergy. Sheba realizes after a moment what they're doing—creating a path with the more stable free-standing posts. She waits until Piers and Felix are done moving and resetting posts, and then climbs up to follow that new path to the first door.

Upon reaching the chest at the end, Felix barely hesitates before stripping off his armor and shirt, leaving him bare-chested—she knows the shirt is unnecessary, since the chest armor had all the weight, so he'd probably just taken off his shirt for practicality. Either way, she's not going to stop him. The treasure chest snaps shut as the door opens, and Sheba appreciates the sight of his broad shoulders as she runs behind him into the next room. Jenna rolls her eyes and laughs, and Sheba bites back the urge to retalitate with a joke about Isaac.

By about the third room, Felix is glistening with sweat and she has to shake herself before she can focus on the puzzle in front of them. He's moving another pillar, but when she tears her eyes away from him she sees a simpler solution. She ducks past him and casts Scoop on a small hole in the ground. A jet of water shoots up from the cracked ground, carrying her with it, but it's shorter-lived than she thought it would be. She just barely catches herself on the cliff above it and has to pull herself up the rest of the way by her arms—the Sheba from a few months ago, sitting up in a tower, definitely wouldn't have been able to do that.

"Up here!" she calls, to get the attention of the others, and Felix looks up at her in surprise before his eyes light up in excitement. It really clicks with Sheba then how much Felix is loving this. He'd seemed very invested in the puzzles at Venus Lighthouse and the elemental rocks they'd climbed, and it seems this is no exception. He relishes a challenge.

Piers had sacrificed his armor in the second room (Sheba had somehow honestly forgotten he was actually _more_ built than Felix, especially in the upper body), so Jenna volunteers next—she thinks for a second and then unlaces the heavy, armored belt she'd been wearing and places it into the third chest.

The fourth room is a breeze, and they're finally approaching the last treasure chest. Sheba's already sliding her fingers into the buckles of her armlets, tugging them off and practically flinging them into the chest as she heads to the door.

"We're gonna beat them up there," Felix says, shooting her a grin and sprinting ahead, up the stairs and into the sunlight above. They reach a plateau marked with flags, and sure enough, it's only the four of them for now. Sheba places the Shaman's Rod off to the side, on their end of the platform, and joins Felix and the others in waiting for Moapa.

The next minute or two passes in relative silence, as the four of them try to catch their breath and stretch. Sheba can tell that the air is a little different this high up, almost like it passes through her lungs too quickly.

Piers reaches into his pocket and pulls out two Psy Crystals. "While we're waiting, anyone feeling tapped out? Sheba?"

She mentally runs a check on herself—tired, but not exhausted. She can keep going. "It was just the running that got me, really. I can still cast."

"Attagirl," Jenna says, ruffling her hair. "We can take 'em ourselves, do you boys just wanna hold the Shaman's Rod and wait over there?"

"And what, you'd have all the fun? No chance," Piers says.

"You could keep score," Sheba suggests, and Felix laughs quietly.

"How do you 'score' physical combat?"

"Headshot is ten points," Sheba begins, but then the door to the other side of the trials slams open and the joviality abruptly stops. Back to business. Moapa and his men rush up to meet them, and Sheba gets the distinct satisfaction of watching shock rush across Moapa's face when he sees they've beat him.

"You may prove a challenge yet," Moapa observes. "But let us begin!"

He's scarcely settled into a fighting stance before Jenna singes the ground in front of him with sweeping fire, startling him into leaping back and coming dangerously close to the edge of the platform. Felix moves in with sword drawn, obviously trying to catch him before he recovers, but one of Moapa's men blocks the hit before it can land.

Sheba shuts her eyes, reaching out to feel the direction of the wind. At this higher altitude it's much easier to get a sense of things, and she uses that to her advantage. The other one of Moapa's men tries to come at her from the side, obviously interpreting her posture and closed eyes as a sign of weakness. His mistake. Sheba blocks his hit with her staff and shoves him back, then opens her eyes and strikes him with lighting she pulls from the sky. He staggers, and Piers stuns him by hitting him smartly with the pommel of his sword. He staggers, and then raises his hands in surrender—Piers gestures theatrically to the sidelines of the arena, and Sheba snorts.

The ground jolts violently under her feet, and even as she stumbles slightly she feels no fear, as a glance to Felix confirms her suspicions that it was his doing. He stands with his feet planted firmly on the ground, a solid rock in the chaos of the fight, a soft green glow enveloping him. She slips up behind him and stands with her back against his, using the relative safety at the origin of the quake to strike again with lightning, hitting the second of Moapa's men this time.

She feels a sudden rush of heat, and Jenna's fire blasts past her to hit the same man Sheba had just electrocuted. He raises his hands and steps off of the arena in surrender, as Sheba grins excitedly and high-fives Jenna in celebration. Felix squeezes her shoulder and leaves her, lunging across the field to take down the man that Piers had previously stunned.

Sheba has a brief moment of confusion when she realizes she's lost track of Moapa in all the excitement of their first win. She spins around and finds him cornered by Piers on the edge of the stage. She can see Moapa's energy is flagging and can't resist, sweeping in under Piers's arm and striking the finishing blow herself. Her staff hits him under the jaw on its upswing, and Moapa falls to his knees, defeated.

"Ten points," she says breathlessly to Felix, who, to her surprise, laughs out loud. Sheba brushes her sweaty hair off her face, then joins Felix and the others as they regroup at the center of the platform. Moapa pushes himself up off the ground to stand before them, looking exhausted but—finally—impressed.

"You have proven yourselves," Moapa says, "and you are heroes indeed. After many years, the vow that Hoabna made to Yegelos has at last been fulfilled!" He hands the Hover Jade to Felix, who in turn gives him the Shaman's Rod. After all it had been through with them, Sheba's a little sad to see it go.

_But this puts us closer to Jupiter Lighthouse,_ she reminds herself, _and my past._

Sheba's curiosity about the stone must have shown on her face, because Felix holds it out to her. She gladly takes it, turning it over in her hands. It's larger than her palm, flat, and smooth—so smooth it's almost soft.

Out of nowhere, she feels nauseated and wavers on her feet. "Sheba!" Jenna says sharply, but her voice is distorted through Sheba's ears, like she's underwater. Sheba's knees buckle underneath her, the stone still gripped tightly in her hands, and her mind flickers in and out of consciousness. She vaguely feels someone lifting her and carrying her...somewhere.

Where they're going isn't important. What's important is, this had happened to her once before. It was several weeks before Babi's men came to take her away. She'd fallen ill and seen visions in her mind of a man with long blue hair and dark, secretive eyes; of losing her grip and falling into the ocean. She'd been out for nearly twenty-four hours and worried Faran sick.

And this time? Archers, an arrow of light. Alex's voice, saying "Consider it a gift." A huge tower, undoubtedly Jupiter Lighthouse. Jenna, raising her sword to defend against Karst's scythe. A boy with blond hair and purple eyes that she vaguely remembers from somewhere, but can't place where or when.

She awakes with a full-body flinch, as her hands clench into fists and her nails bite into her palms. She squeezes her eyes shut tightly enough that she sees stars, desperately trying to commit to memory everything she'd seen.

When she finally opens her eyes, it's to a low wooden ceiling, and unfamiliar white stone walls. They haven't brought her back to the ship, then. And someone had changed her into her bedclothes. She tilts her head to the side to see Felix sitting on another bed several feet away, running a cloth over the blade of his sword. He doesn't notice at first that she's woken up, but glances up once and then does a double take when their eyes meet.

"You're up," he says, setting his sword aside and moving to stand next to her bed. "What happened?"

"How long was I out?" she asks, avoiding his question and dreading the answer to her own.

"Three days," he answers, and she feels hot, angry tears well up in her eyes. Three days she'd kept them in Shaman Village, when they could've been moving forward! Three _entire_ days!

"Hey, hey," he says, brown eyes growing wide. He drops to one knee next to her bed and grabs one of her hands in both of his. "Sheba, what's wrong?"

"Why didn't you bring me back to the ship?" she says accusingly, rubbing at her eyes and trying to ignore the way her voice had cracked.

Taken aback, Felix blinks at her. "At first we thought you'd overexerted yourself and just needed to sleep it off, Psynergy sickness or something, but when you didn't wake up after a day... We didn't want to move you. And you had a bad fever."

"But we could have been traveling all this time!" she exclaims, yanking her hand away from his and sitting up, pulling her knees to her chest and hiding her face in her folded arms. _I'm crying too hard for someone my age, over something so small,_ she thinks miserably, but she can't stop.

The bed shifts as he sits next to her. She fights to control her sobs, hating the fact that it has to be him seeing her this way.

"Sheba..." His hand rubs up and down her back, soothing. "You never answered my question. What _happened_ to you?"

She shakes her head and doesn't look up, not wanting to admit anything of what she'd seen. He sighs.

"You were talking in your sleep," he says, and she knows he feels it when her shoulders tense up. "Piers said it was Anemosian. None of us understood a word, not even Kraden."

"I don't speak Anemosian," she says, her stuffed nose forcing her to fumble over the word. It's the truth, but she vaguely remembers Faran saying she'd been mumbling to herself the first time this happened. Maybe it was the same thing then. Felix laughs softly, still with his hand resting on her.

"I know you don't. That's why I'm worried."

She sniffles again, and lifts her head to look at him. "Why does Piers know what that language sounds like?"

Felix hands her a handkerchief, and she blows her nose. "Apparently it has some vocabulary similarities to ancient Lemurian, which he does understand, and from there he sort of connected the dots," he says. "Still waiting on that answer."

She looks down at the bedspread, then back up at him. "I don't know what happened."

"Liar," he says, but it's gentle, there's no anger in his eyes. She shakes her head in denial, and he just sighs. "At least just tell me if you're hurt."

"I'm not," she says, and this time he seems to take it for truth. He stands, then leans over and kisses the top of her head.

"I'll wait outside. We can head out and say our goodbyes to Moapa when you're dressed."

She stares after him as he picks up his sword and leaves the room, closing the door behind him. What on earth was that kiss supposed to mean? Was he patronizing her? Trying to express that he was glad she was alive? Or...could he possibly have feelings for her after all?

She lets out a sharp exasperated huff of breath, and stands up to get dressed. Even if she's right and he really does care about her in a romantic way, it's not as if it matters. For Jupiter's sake, they have a quest to deal with. Hormones and silly crushes have no place in their world right now.

She remembers how useless she'd felt at the beginning of their journey, small and weak and constantly afraid. No wonder Felix and Jenna had been hesitant to bring her along. They probably aren't worried for her so much anymore, they know she can at least hold her own in a fight, but this three-day fainting episode probably hasn't helped her case.

Upon exiting the inn's bedroom, she almost immediately runs into Jenna. She'd probably been coming to check on her after seeing Felix leave.

"Hey, you're up!" Jenna exclaims, throwing her arms around her. "I'm really glad you're feeling better, we were all so worried!"

"Thanks. I, um... I must have needed the rest."

Jenna pushes Sheba away, holding her at arm's length with hands still on her shoulders. "Listen, you let me know if you ever need to take a break, okay? You've been pushing yourself really hard recently, and I don't want this to happen again."

Sheba just nods. "I will. Thanks, Jenna."

Taking her hand, Jenna pulls Sheba up the stairs to meet with the others. "And if my brother makes it seem like you're not trying hard enough, just tell me. I'll singe his eyebrows off."

"But why would he—"

"He just tends to push people too hard sometimes, without meaning it. You know how he is, he doesn't get that other people have physical limits. Just because _he_ can fight and sail the ship and not sleep for a long time with minimal food intake doesn't mean the rest of us can."

Sheba has to assume that there's some story behind this, probably from before she'd joined the cause. Jenna doesn't talk much about the times when it was just her, Felix, and Kraden traveling with Saturos, Menardi, and Alex—and naturally, Felix says even less. Her general impression is that it had just been a stressful time for everyone involved, and she doesn't want to push any further. She'd only traveled with Saturos and Menardi for a few weeks, tops, but even she had noticed the change in their little group's dynamic once the two of them and Alex were gone.

The five of them leave town after eating lunch with, and then saying their goodbyes to, Moapa. It takes an uncharacteristically small amount of cajoling to get Felix to leave the cooks alone, and head back, and Sheba has a suspicion that it's because of her holding them up. Upon returning to the ship, Piers leans over the map in the lounge, and Sheba joins him.

"If we sail overnight and don't make stops, it shouldn't be more than a few days' journey to Atteka," Piers says, tracing a finger along the paper.

"Atteka?" Sheba repeats, following the invisible line he drew.

"Mm-hmm." He taps the continent in question. "We'll probably need to land here in this bay, then up north a bit should be Contigo, where we can rest for a night before taking on the lighthouse."

Sheba's stomach drops. The lighthouse is only a few days' journey away. After all this buildup, all the hoping and praying she's done, she's a few days away from finding out if it's been worth anything. And after all that, even though she desperately wants answers...at the same time, she's terrified. What if the lighthouse has nothing? She knows for a fact that Felix had had questions about his quest and the way his life had played out, but it didn't seem as though he'd had any particular revelations when Venus Lighthouse was lit. And from what she'd seen of Isaac, it didn't look like he had, either. Though to be fair, they had all been focused on other things—namely, not dying.

"Are you all right?" Piers asks, and his concerned expression tells her she must have spaced out.

"I'm fine," she says, forcing a smile. "It's just so crazy knowing that this is going to be the third lighthouse. After this, we only have Mars."

"It's all quite exciting, isn't it?" he muses. "I never in my life thought I'd be part of something like this."

"Neither did I," she says, hearing the melancholic tone in her own voice that she hadn't meant to let through.

"I suppose both of us had fairly unorthodox ways of coming into this, didn't we?" he says, smiling good-naturedly. "I feel a little out of place sometimes, seeing how closely Jenna and Felix are tied to this quest. I'm sure you'll prove invaluable at the upcoming lighthouse. Meanwhile, if I hadn't been arrested in Madra, I would have never met you all. It just seems so arbitrary."

Sheba shrugs. "I think we Adepts have a way of finding each other. Even if you hadn't been arrested, we'd have tracked you down eventually."

"Are you saying I was destined to find my way to this group?"

"I do believe in destiny," she replies. "There are countless ways we could have met you. We needed a ship when it seemed like no one had any, and you did. That's one possibility. Madra was raided by the Kibombo, and even if we didn't have to go after you, Felix would have wanted to help the Madrans. So there's another."

"And don't forget that we did need a Mercury Adept with us," Felix says, and Sheba jumps—she'd completely missed his entrance into the room. "Given that our only other option was Alex." The little curl to his lip gives away exactly how displeased he'd been by _that_ possibility, and Sheba smirks.

"So I'm the lesser of two evils?" Piers says, and Felix grins.

"You could say that."

"Have some respect for your elders," Piers says, but he's laughing. "Were you coming in here to ask if I could help raise anchor?"

"If you wouldn't mind. I'm sure I'm not the only one ready to get moving."

As she watches them go, Sheba feels another stab of guilt. They could've been long gone from here if it hadn't been for her. Felix clearly hadn't meant for it to come across as a jab at her, but it still stung. Dejected, she wanders downstairs to her room and flops across her bed, grabbing a worn-out novel from her bedside table and attempting to read.

A good hour goes by, and then she realizes she's halfway through the fourth chapter and still hasn't absorbed a word. Her body, after three days of unconsciousness, is itching to do something. She hops up off the bed again, and digs around under her bed for a spare mace, which she then carries upstairs to the deck.

Felix is manning the wheel, as she'd been expecting. She swings the mace in both hands, and the motion, along with the nice _whoosh_ sound it makes as it flies through the air, catches his attention.

"Careful where you swing that thing, I like my head where it is."

"Spar with me," she says, completely dropping the pleasantries. He shakes his head.

"Sheba, I'm kind of driving a ship here."

"So tie the wheel to something to force it to go straight. Look around, there's no cliffs or anything in eyesight. We'll be good for an hour at least." She keeps swinging her mace around and his eyes track the path of the head, a little worried line between his eyebrows.

"If I say yes, will you stop swinging that thing around like that?"

"I'll start swinging it at you instead," she warns, and he shrugs.

"At least then I know when to dodge."

He ends up going to get Piers to handle the ship in his stead, and Piers agreed once he learned that Sheba's alternative suggestion had been "tie the wheel to something." Sheba makes Piers promise to stay out of the fight, having a sneaking suspicion that he'd try to help her out, which defeated the point of sparring one-on-one. Once Piers is stationed behind the wheel, Felix retrieves his sword and tosses the sheath out of the way.

_I really didn't think this through,_ she realizes as they circle each other. Felix staring her down, fairly massive sword gripped in two hands, is intimidating even though she knows he'd never actually hurt her. After a moment, she decides it must be his eyes: Those huge brown eyes, capable of carrying so much warmth and kindness, are also capable of catching even the tiniest details. He watches her every movement, and she wonders if he can tell that her hands are already sweating. She shifts her grip on her mace.

"You're too close to the head, you won't hit hard enough like that," he says, while he continues circling her. "Why're you using a mace anyway, I thought you liked the staff you had now."

"I just want to get better with maces, in case we find another one later that's better," she says. "I feel like they do more damage."

"Not necessarily, it all depends on how you wield it." She fakes a lunge towards him, thinking that maybe the talking could've distracted him, but he doesn't even flinch. "You broadcast your movements too much."

"Maybe if you weren't staring so hard..."

"Sorry, am I making you nervous?" The slightest trace of a smirk plays around his lips. It makes her stomach flip, and that kind of annoys her. Who does he think he is, doing that in the middle of a fight?

"I'm not nervous at all," she says, sending a tiny bolt of lightning sparking across the deck at him.

"Hey, ow—" It's cheap, but she takes advantage of his momentary distraction to actually leap across the deck at him this time, swinging the mace at him as she moves. He backs up to avoid her, effectively dodging the hit. "Not fair."

"We never decided on the rules," she shoots back.

"Well I'm deciding now," he says. "Weapons only, no party tricks."

"You never let me have my way," she says, pouting at him.

He smiles again. "I do so. More than I should."

She skips backwards, adjusting her hold on the handle of the mace to reflect what he'd said earlier. He moves at her again, trying to slip around behind her. In one of her first actual fights on their way to Daila Temple, he'd warned her never to let anyone or anything get behind her in a fight, so with that in mind she spins to track him. She spots the mast in her peripheral vision and has a sudden flash of inspiration, hefting the mace in her hands. She runs at the mast and uses the mace like a pole-vault, spiking it into the ground to give herself a boost to run partway up the mast. She flips over Felix's head and then, holding the handle of the mace in both hands, catches it around his neck and lets her body weight drag him down to press the staff against his windpipe.

The chokehold proves effective, and he coughs out "I give," after a moment. She releases him, heading back to her side of the deck and settling back into a fighting stance.

He rubs at his throat as they begin circling each other again, and she can't hold back a triumphant little giggle. He scoffs at her. "I give you one round, and you think you've already won."

"You'd better start actually fighting, then," she says, and the words have barely left her mouth before he jumps at her. She dodges the swing but it was a close one, and they both know it. Before she has time to pull it together, he's tangled one of his long legs with hers, tripping her and bringing her down to the ground, blade pointed at her neck.

She simply lies there for a second on her back, eyes following the line of his sword up into his eyes, and it's only when she turns away to pick up her mace again that he steps back. She pushes herself to her feet, mace in hand, and rolls her shoulders a bit.

"Not so cocky now, hm?" he says.

"We're tied, shut up." She throws herself at him again, but she's tiring out already and he easily blocks her swing. She's not used to fighting someone with Felix's size or prowess, especially not by herself. But that's the point of sparring, she supposes.

She catches another one of his heavy swings downward with the long handle of her mace, and the impact of his blade smashing down makes her teeth rattle. He's bearing down on her hard enough that she can feel her legs shaking. A bead of sweat slides from her hairline and down her nose.

"Giving up?" he says, and he doesn't even sound winded. She sort of hates him for that.

"No." Gritting her teeth, she summons all the strength she has to push back and give herself just enough leverage to get out from the pressure of his sword. There's a gouge in the handle of her mace and she's not sure if it can withstand another hit without snapping in half, so she kicks him hard in the groin before he can bring his sword down on her again.

"Now _that's_ fighting dirty, Sheba," Piers calls across the deck as Felix doubles over. She shrugs, and slams the handle of her mace into Felix's shoulder hard enough to bring him to his knees. He drops his sword and raises one hand in surrender.

"Just...give me two seconds. Ugh." He drops forward with one hand still curled over his stomach, the other bracing him on the deck. He glances up at her, grinning a little, with his hair draping over his face. "If any man ever gets handsy on you, and you don't like it, do that and run."

She laughs. "I will."

She helps him up, and for a moment she thinks he's going to say something else but then Jenna opens the door leading to the inside of the ship and leans out.

"Guys, Kraden and I are done with dinner. Get cleaned up."

"Can we eat on deck? It's so nice out," Sheba says, running her hand through her bangs.

"You should still shower," Jenna says. "You too, big brother."

After they've showered and straightened up to Jenna's satisfaction, she does indeed bring the meal out to the deck, and they eat while watching the setting sun, chatting idly. Felix joins Sheba where she sits on the stairs up to the prow of the ship, having finished his own food.

"So, I might never have children," he says abruptly, but the slight smirk on his face betrays the humor in his words.

She giggles uncomfortably. "I really am sorry about that! I ran out of ideas. To be honest, it was because I overestimated my own abilities with the mace. My balance got thrown all out of whack because the one end was so heavy."

He nods. "Yeah, I could tell it was wearing you out. But you do have the strongest Psynergetic abilities out of the four of us, I think. I've seen you keep casting long after I'm exhausted, so you've got that going for you."

"I just wish I could get a little better at actual fighting, just in case I ever can't use my Psynergy."

"I know, but even so I think you've really improved, Sheba. I'm proud of you."

Suddenly self-conscious, she looks away and fiddles with her fork. "Thanks, Felix."

"It's the truth. Remember back when you first joined up with us? You couldn't hit worth a damn with or without a weapon. Compare that with today—you gave me a couple bruises." There's a pause, and then he stretches, arms above his head, and Sheba hears a few joints pop.

"That sounded painful."

"I'm fine. Just getting old, is all."

"Aw, come on, Felix. You're what, eighteen? That's not old. Kraden's old. Piers is old."

"Never in all my years did I think I would be categorized with Kraden," Piers says, shaking his head as he guides the ship around a rock with one hand on the tiller. "I respect him, of course, he's a great scholar, but..."

"'In all your years,' huh? How many years would that be exactly?" Jenna asks, leaning next to the wheel to watch Piers, as if his expression would somehow give away his age.

"If you'll recall the last time we had this conversation, I believe you determined I am older than Kraden," he says.

"But we never decided what that meant. Felix, how old is Kraden, like over eighty?"

"How should I know? You had three more years in Vale than I did, you could've asked him then."

"I never thought about it..."

"I don't know if it's polite to bother someone about their age, anyway," Felix says, and Piers snaps his fingers.

"See? Felix understands."

"That's only relevant for women," Jenna says, shaking her head. "They say you should never ask a _lady_ her age. Men are totally fair game."

"I'm positive you're misinterpreting that," Piers says, smiling in spite of himself.

"Really though, Piers, you know we're not going to drop this until you give an answer, right?"

"I'm aware. Have you ever thought that maybe I enjoy the game just as much as the three of you seem to?"

"Three? Hold on, don't lump me in with them," Felix protests. "I just helped you!"

"But you're still curious, aren't you? You're not making much more of an effort to stop them from badgering me," Piers shoots back.

"If we ever do guess your age right, will you tell us?" Sheba asks.

"Maybe, maybe not," he answers, shrugging.

"But we have a right to know," Jenna says, and Sheba agrees.

Eventually, Felix heads to bed and Piers shoos them off belowdecks so he can sail in peace. Sheba helps Jenna clean the dishes, and they head to their shared bedroom. As they get dressed for bed, Sheba poses her friend a question.

"What was Felix like growing up?"

"Quiet," Jenna says, shrugging and sitting on the edge of her bed. "But when he wanted to talk, he did. Mom and Dad said he never had a first word... Instead he had a first sentence."

"What was the sentence, did they tell you?"

"I don't remember. Probably something about food."

"So not much has changed," Sheba says, giggling, and Jenna nods.

"He did used to let me play with his hair, though. I learned how to braid and I practiced on him all the time."

"He always kept his hair long?"

"Yeah. Mom always said it made him look really handsome... I don't know if she was trying to reverse-psychology him into cutting it off or what, like 'oh no, Mom thinks I look good, I'd better rebel against her,' but he never did." Jenna pauses, and there's a little bit of an edge to her voice when she continues. "If he ever did have a rebellious phase, I think I missed it."

Sheba leans over to blow the candle out, and the two of them slide under the covers of their beds in unison. After a moment, Sheba speaks up again. "I only had one because I was allowed to get snippy. Getting kidnapped kinda takes a lot out of you."

"And Menardi never pulled her punches," Jenna agrees, and Sheba winces sympathetically. The Proxians had never hit Sheba, probably too afraid of breaking their newest tool, but she'd once watched in quiet horror as they went off on Jenna for standing up for her. Menardi had hit Jenna in the stomach, and the image of Felix kneeling on the ground, bent over her as he healed her would be forever burned into Sheba's brain.

"I never thanked you for that, did I?" she muses, staring up at the ceiling she can barely see in the darkness. Jenna's sheets rustle, Sheba assumes she'd shrugged.

"You never needed to. And besides, it's not like we've had a lot of down time."

"Well...thank you."

"What are friends for, anyway?" Sheba can hear the smile in Jenna's voice. "You're welcome."

Jenna's breathing deepens as she falls asleep, but Sheba has too many thoughts racing around in her own head to do the same. She'd been half hoping that sparring with Felix earlier would have been enough activity, but apparently her body doesn't think it was enough to compensate for the three days she'd spent unconscious. Instead, she lies there worrying about all the other times her friends had done something for her, and she hadn't said a word.


	3. Chapter 3

The thunderstorm, when it happens, is a relief. Just hearing the sound of the thunder is enough to make her relax substantially. Being belowdecks means that she can't hear the rain, though, so she wraps her comforter around her shoulders like a massive, puffy cape and slips out of the bedroom.

Her target is the couch up in the kitchen and lounge area upstairs, but when she arrives she finds it already occupied by Felix, in a sleeveless pajama shirt and loose cotton pants. His spine is straight and his muscles are tense, and he's tapping his fingers on the armrest. He doesn't seem to notice her until she's standing directly next to him, but when he does he just nods at her.

"I thought you went to bed," she says.

"I did. The thunder woke me up." He grimaces. "Storms make me nervous. Tried to go out there and take over the wheel from Piers, just to make my brain shut up, but he wasn't having it."

She nods, sitting on the couch next to him. The dim light of the candles exaggerate the dark circles under Felix's eyes as he stares blankly at nothing. After another moment of sitting in silence, she makes a decision, and (somewhat surprised at her own boldness) lays down on her side so her head lands on his lap. His hand immediately stops its fidgeting on the armrest, and when she looks up at him she can just make out the way his eyebrows are raised in surprise.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm going to sleep. You're going to be a pillow."

The corner of his mouth quirks up in amusement. "And I don't get to sleep?"

"Well you sure aren't sleeping now," she says. "Play with my hair, it'll help relax you." She'd been expecting him to say something like _Don't be ridiculous_, or _Get off me, Sheba_, hoping that teasing him a little bit would make him feel better, but he doesn't say either of those things. His hand slips into her hair and begins to gently massage her scalp, just barely brushing her ear. The fact that she's turned away from him with the side of her face pressed against his thigh makes things a little awkward, but it feels good anyway.

The thunder booms again, and she feels him flinch ever so slightly, hand twitching reflexively in her hair.

"Storms really don't bother you, even out in the middle of the ocean like this?" he asks.

She twists slightly to face him a little bit better, reaching up to brush her fingers against his bicep. "Of course not." A tiny spark flickers out to dance against the bare skin of his arm, and she thinks maybe she hears him gasp. "I can make them."

He meets her eyes in the dim light of the candles. His pupils are blown wide, probably thanks to the darkness of the room.

"I think you forgot who you're dealing with," she says, trailing her fingers down his arm and then turning to face away from him again, resting her hand on his knee.

"Yeah," he says, voice quiet. "I think I did."

She falls asleep with his hand still stroking through her hair, and the sound of the rain pattering on the deck outside.

Felix isn't there when she wakes up the next morning, and he'd somehow maneuvered a pillow underneath her head in place of his leg. In the back of her mind, she wonders if she'd managed to dream the whole thing as she sits up and runs her fingers through her messy hair.

But then Felix himself walks into the kitchen from outside, and smiles at her—she must look ridiculous. "I hope I didn't wake you up when I left. My leg fell asleep before the rest of me."

She can't help but laugh a little bit, half humor and half relief that she hadn't dreamed it. "No, you didn't wake me up. I don't know how, though."

"Quiet escapes are kind of a trade secret of mine." He opens one of the kitchen cabinets and digs around, finally unearthing a teakettle. "Jenna's a light sleeper, and she's not too friendly if she gets woken up before she's ready. As I'm sure you've found out by this point."

"You're damn right, I value my sleep," Jenna says, appearing in the doorway to the kitchen and rubbing her eyes. "Sheba, you left?"

"It was raining and I wanted to hear it," Sheba answers, and Jenna just nods in response. "Felix, what kind of tea is that?"

Felix turns the cylindrical tea canister around in his hands, then holds it out to her to display the lack of a label with a shrug. "No idea."

With an exasperated huff of breath, Sheba stands up and walks across the floor to grab the canister from him. "Well then, how do you know it's even tea? It could be some kind of freaky Lemurian drug."

Felix shrugs. "It smells like citrus, and it looks like tea leaves. Jenna, stove?" Obligingly, Jenna shuffles over to light the stovetop with a snap of her fingers. Felix puts the kettle on the stove once she's moved out of the way. "And besides," he continues, "if they weren't supposed to be edible, they wouldn't be in the kitchen. It's a contamination issue, remember how I drilled him on food safety for the first week after we all moved in?"

"It's part of his plot," Jenna says, flopping down in Sheba's vacated spot on the couch. "He's going to drug us all and then drown us in the ocean."

Right on cue, Piers pokes his head in from outside. "Felix, did you find it?"

"What, the drugs?" Jenna says, and receives a confused look from Piers in response.

"I did find the tea, right where you said it would be," Felix answers. "Jenna says you're planning on drugging us with it and then murdering us."

Piers snaps his fingers, feigning disappointment. "Curses, I've been foiled."

Sheba holds the canister up towards the natural light outside, still trying to find a label. "What kind of drugs are they, Piers?"

He rolls his eyes at her. "It's orange spice tea. I bought it from one of those tiny towns in Osenia as we were passing through."

"Does it have drugs in it?"

"Hush. If you wanted drugs, you should've asked around in Shaman Village. I'm told they use that sort of stuff for rituals."

Behind them, the teakettle whistles, and Felix pours the steaming water into some cups he'd set aside for himself and Piers. Sheba pouts at him when he doesn't move to pour any others. "What, don't Jenna and I get any?"

Felix gestures at the kettle and remaining empty cups on the table as he follows Piers back outside. "I'm not taking responsibility for giving you potentially mind-altering substances, get your own!"

Sheba sticks her tongue out at him as the door closes. She does eventually end up helping herself to some tea, then sits on the couch next to Jenna as they both try to wake up. Kraden wanders upstairs after a while wanting tea himself, so Sheba heats more water as they discuss the upcoming lighthouse climb. Kraden is looking forward to seeing Contigo for himself after their experiences in Shaman Village, and Sheba has to agree. It's possible that Contigo, with its rich history and proximity to the lighthouse, might have ties to her past.

The problem, of course, is that until they actually reach Atteka they're pretty much confined to the walls of the ship. The lookout tower is Sheba's place to get away from it all, being the highest place she can reach, but sometimes even that isn't enough. She's constantly impressed with Piers's inability to tire of the endless blue water around him. Fighting sea monsters does give an occasional, welcome break in the monotony, but once the whirlwind is over it's more of the same, and time slows back down to a crawl.

So Sheba's caught a little off guard when Piers sticks his head into the kitchen one morning exclaiming, "Everyone, come look at this!"

Sheba follows him out, expecting to see some dolphins or something, but instead is greeted with what is clearly Jupiter Lighthouse, rising from the morning mist. "How much longer, Piers?"

"Another few hours, at least," he says, and she frowns in disappointment.

"Look, does it have towers coming off the sides or something? How did they build that?" Jenna says, squinting into the distance.

"Why are you acting like this is a new thing to you? This is our third lighthouse, Jenna," Felix says, looking for all the world like he has better things to be doing than looking at the mysterious ancient ruins of a civilization.

"I know, but it just catches me off guard," Jenna says. "It's like Lunpa said in Lemuria. No one in our time has ever been able to build anything like that."

"Well, it's only my second lighthouse," says Sheba. "And Piers's first. So _we're_ allowed to be excited."

"You lived practically next-door to Venus Lighthouse for your entire life. Speaking of which, I don't remember you being this excited when we got there," Felix says, and Sheba shoots him a deadpan look.

"Gosh, I wonder why."

"Heeeey!" A shout from a passing sailboat, fairly close to them, stops the conversation and Piers leans over the railing.

"Good morning," Piers shouts down to the captain, who upon further inspection is using some sort of a horn to amplify his voice. "I hope you're not planning on boarding us from that thing, I can tell you right now it won't end well for you." The sailboat is mid-sized, but it's dwarfed in comparison to Piers's Lemurian ship.

"Not at all," the other captain responds. "Are you headed for Contigo?"

"We are! Why do you ask?"

"It's just, you won't be able to make it in this way. Your ship won't fit through the reefs there without sustaining some damage."

Piers glances back at the others, raising an eyebrow. "Where do you suggest we make land, then?"

"If you go around that way," the captain points off to the east, "there's a huge river I think you can fit through. Keep following it through the widest point, and you'll end up in Contigo's port."

"That's incredibly helpful, thank you!" Piers calls back down, and then turns the ship sharply to the east once he's sure that the sailboat won't get caught up in their wake.

"We really got lucky," Jenna muses, watching the smaller boat as it fades into the distance.

"It gives me high hopes for the people of Contigo," Piers agrees. "We're not even within a kilometer of the town, and they're already more hospitable to us than the Shamans were."

As the helpful sailor had promised, the river they eventually find leads them straight into a port where they can easily make land. Sheba notices the reefs the other captain had spoken of immediately, and winces. Even Piers's ship would've taken a beating if they'd run into those the wrong way.

Once they disembark, the first thing they all notice is a massive wing, balanced precariously on top of several wooden beams. Sheba stands underneath it and looks up, mesmerized by the muffled sunlight filtering through the canvas material. She wants to run her hand along the webbing and the boning structure, but doesn't think the people who had worked on it would take too kindly to her touching it. There are some people milling around, and a few of them are openly watching Sheba and the others as they come towards town. So she settles with just looking—it's still a very good piece of craftsmanship, even she can tell that.

The town of Contigo sits next to a massive crater in the ground. Sheba, rather than heading straight for town like the others, wanders off to get a closer look at the hole. Jenna notices and chases after her, sticking close to her side.

"What's this crater supposed to be?" Sheba wonders out loud, standing at the edge and staring down at it. There's something in the air that she can't quite place, pricking at her skin like static electricity.

Jenna shakes her head. "I don't know, but I'd feel better if you weren't so close to falling in..."

"I'll be fine," Sheba says dismissively, squinting at the dirt and rock. "It just doesn't make sense, you know? A giant hole next to a town. Why wouldn't they try to build over it, or at least level it out?"

"Maybe it's sacred ground, or something? Like Mount Aleph."

"Don't you think it would be better protected if that was the case? Even just with a fence..."

"It's apparently where Anemos lifted off," says Felix, coming up behind them and startling them both. "I just asked someone about it in town and that's what they said."

"Lifted off, huh," Sheba repeats, eyes leaving the crater and traveling up into the sky, shading her eyes against the sun. Suddenly that prickly, static feeling makes sense, and she feels something twist in her stomach. She _must_ have a connection to this place. She'd fallen from the sky as a child, hadn't she? And who's to say Anemos hadn't moved after lifting off, depositing her as an infant in Lalivero? Faran said she herself had made a crater when she landed, and they were so shocked to find a living child in the rubble... The hair on the back of her neck is standing on end. _This is it. This is __**it**__, Sheba!_

"Sheba, are you with us?" Felix's voice, questioning, brings her back. She smiles up at him, trying to act as though she hasn't just had a breakthrough.

"Yeah. Sorry, let's keep moving." She turns on her heel and walks away from the crater, towards the center of town. Felix catches up to her rather quickly, gloved hand touching her shoulder.

"Are you sure you're okay? You looked really out of it there for a second, I was afraid you were going to faint again."

"Ha, no. No more fainting. I promise I'm okay, Felix."

"If you say so," he says. The expression on his face, all wide eyes and worry, reminds her of that morning in the Shman Village inn. He raises his hand and brushes his knuckles against her cheek, and then, seeming to realize himself, abruptly drops his hand and walks away.

Sheba stares after him for a moment, and then spins around, looking for Jenna. She finds her browsing a nearby food cart.

"Jenna, is something _wrong_ with Felix?"

Surprised, Jenna blinks at her. "Well, I think there's plenty wrong with him, but I'm his sister, so it's practically a requirement. What makes you say that?"

Sheba narrows her eyes, trying to think. Even though Jenna is her best friend, telling her about Felix's odd behavior seems like it would be more awkward than anything. "He's just been acting weird around me lately."

Jenna shrugs. "He's been acting weird around all of us lately. I think he's nervous about the lighthouse, but he doesn't know how to express it."

Sheba just nods in response, deciding to let the subject drop. Felix, Piers, and Kraden join them again a few minutes later, to let them know they'd made reservations at the inn already.

"Wait, we're staying the night? I wanted to go straight to the lighthouse," Sheba says, feeling a small pang of disappointment in her chest. Jenna seems to recognize that this will lead to a discussion, and herds the five of them off to the side so they can talk without easily being overheard.

"No, it's too late in the day for that. If we started for it now, we'd get there by nightfall, and I'd rather not climb it in the dark," Felix says.

"It just feels like a waste of time, is all," Sheba says, frustration seeping into her voice. "Why sit around when we could be doing something useful?"

"There's plenty to do in town in the meantime," Piers says. "Earlier we saw some sort of gambling tents. I think I'd like to try them out, myself..."

"And I wonder..." Jenna begins, and then shakes her head. "No, nevermind."

"What is it?" Kraden prompts, and Jenna kind of sighs like she'd expected him to ask.

"Well, I was just thinking... I wonder if the others have been through here yet."

Sheba snaps her fingers. "That's a great idea, we can ask around about Isaac!" Jenna whips around to glare at her.

"Sheba, I swear on the fires of Mars..."

"No, no, I'm being serious! That scarf he wears is pretty hard to miss." She shrugs. "If they've been through here, someone would have noticed him."

Felix snorts. "She's got a point. And it would at least be helpful to know if we're still ahead of them."

"Well they'd have to have a ship to get here, right?" Piers says. "I didn't see any at that beach we landed at."

"Perhaps they found a different spot to land," Kraden suggests. "They could already be waiting for us at the lighthouse."

Something darkens in Felix's eyes. "Then I guess we'd better prepare."

"_No_," Jenna snaps. "I'm not going to fight them. I refuse."

"I'm not planning on it either, but I _will_ defend myself. Would you raise your sword against me, too?"

"Felix, stop," Jenna says, a little too loudly, and several people glance their way. She flushes and lowers her voice, but Sheba can still hear the sound of unshed tears in her best friend's tone. "I've had enough fighting. Can't we just talk to them like civilized people?"

"Who says they'll listen?"

"They will," Jenna protests, but Felix shakes his head.

"I went against everything Vale knew. Isaac and Garet were taught to hate people like me, and I'm sure they've told their new friends exactly how evil I am. If I let them, they'll kill me, and take the two of you," he gestures to Sheba and Jenna, "back home. Which is why I don't intend to let them."

"Now hold on just a minute," Sheba says. "Since when am I of any interest to them?"

"Remember Venus Lighthouse? The whole reason we got the Shaman's Rod was in exchange for _your_ safety," Felix says. "And they were planning on taking you back to Lalivero."

"Yeah, I remember Venus Lighthouse," Sheba shoots back. "I remember you jumped off it to save my life. And they saw you do it, too. They must know a bad person wouldn't do something like that."

"And Felix," Jenna says, "Isaac doesn't know that his father is still alive. If we explain that to him, I know he'll listen. Just...please, promise me you won't hurt them."

Sheba watches as the two of them stare each other down, Felix with that darkness still in his eyes and Jenna's face still threatening tears. Eventually, Felix looks away.

"Fine." He turns to leave. "I'm getting supplies."

"For what?" Jenna says sharply, grabbing his wrist.

"Not for them. For anyone _else_ we run into up there." He shakes her off and walks away. They watch him go, and Piers rubs Jenna's shoulder sympathetically.

"He does have a point, you know. Karst, Agatio, and Alex are still around somewhere, and I'd say there's a large possibility they'll end up at the lighthouse with us."

"I'll fight Alex myself if it comes to that. Sheba, let's go." Jenna grabs Sheba's hand and pulls her along, and she follows without complaint, wanting to get away from the situation just as much as her friend.

They soon find themselves on the northeastern edge of town, where there are several people gathered around the skeletal frame of another large wing. Of more interest to Sheba, however, are the ruins nearby. The set of three doors immediately draws her attention, seeming too old, too out of place. She wanders up, trying to look casual while feeling that prickling on the back of her neck again, and presses her hand cautiously against the leftmost door.

The door creaks open slightly, and she jumps, jerking her hand back and looking around to see if anyone had noticed. None of the priests standing around give her a second look, though, so she more confidently pushes the door open this time and walks inside. It's a disappointingly empty hallway, and her footsteps echo as she walks down the dimly torch-lit path to an equally empty room. When she steps back outside, one of the priests nods to her.

"There used to be gold in these rooms—this one, and the one over there," he says, gesturing to the door on the far right. "But a man called Hammet came, nearly fifteen years ago, and took the gold with him when he left."

Sheba's heard of Hammet, of course—his name had even carried all the way to Lalivero. Faran had once given Sheba's foster mother a silk sash that he'd bought from one of Hammet's caravans. "Did he steal it?" she asks. Given that she'd fairly recently learned Lord Babi was a thief of relics as well, the same wouldn't have surprised her about the legendary merchant.

The priest laughs. "Oh, no. It was given to him, along with a child named Ivan. A sort of dowry, I'd imagine… Hammet vowed to use the money to raise Ivan well."

"Ivan," Sheba repeats, racking her brain. _Where have I heard that name before?!_

"His parents had special powers," the priest says. "They said Hammet would need him, and he would help fulfill a prophecy. Oh!" The man snaps his fingers. "And they gave Hammet a staff, too. That's the thing I never understood. What would a man like that need with a staff? I'm told he became a merchant and really made a name for himself out east."

Suddenly, it all clicks. Ivan was the Jupiter Adept in Isaac's party: that's where she'd heard his name. Did that mean, then, that they had been _destined_ to take the Shaman's Rod from Ivan all along, and then trade it off in Shaman Village? She'd felt a little guilty that they'd had to use it in an attempt to gain her freedom, and that they had then traded it for something else without the consent of the original owner. But if that had been the intentions of some higher power, then maybe someone could be on their side after all.

She realizes a bit too late that the priest is looking at her funny. "Miss, are you all right? You look very pale."

Sheba shakes her head. "I'm sorry—I'm fine, I just... That's a little hard to believe." She smiles at him, trying to play it off, and he goes for it.

"I know what you mean. I wish I'd had the luck to be adopted by a rich merchant when I was a baby."

"Ha ha, yeah..." She clears her throat. "So tell me about these ruins."

His face lights up, like she hadn't just changed the subject in the most obvious way possible. "Are you interested?! I can tell you anything you want to know. Well... Mostly, anyway, we're still working on figuring out some things. You see those runes? We're working on translating them, but it's slow going."

"Some them are gates, some them are roads," Sheba murmurs, eyes flicking over the words carved into the doors.

"Sounds like you've already read the sign, then," the priest says, and Sheba blinks at him.

"What?"

He points, and she follows his eyes to a sign with the same text on it that she'd just read. Glancing back and forth between the door and the sign, it takes her a moment to realize she _doesn't need _the translation. Unlike before with the Shaman Village sign, where she'd sort of been able to see the lines as something that made sense, the words on the door come just as easily to her mind as they do when she reads the translated text on the sign.

"Er, um, yes. I...yeah, I read it earlier." She actually does feel a little sick, all of a sudden. "What language is that, originally?"

"Ancient Anemosian," the priest says, and her stomach lurches, pain spearing into her skull. Her vision blurs, and she barely feels it when her knees hit the dirt. Jenna's voice again, shouting...

No visions this time. Just flashes of light, murmurs of an ancient language in her ears—snippets of words she can just barely understand, but nothing that makes sense. A woman's voice, perhaps? _My daughter, my daughter…_ She snaps out of it lying on one of their rented inn beds. Much like before, Felix is sitting by her side.

"What happened to you," he says as soon as she opens her eyes, voice sharp. She shakes her head, staring up at the ceiling.

"I don't know."

"Don't give me that, Sheba, this is just like what happened in Shaman Village."

She jerks upright, suddenly panicked. "What day is it?"

"You were only out for twenty minutes," he says, and she heaves a sigh of relief. She flops on to her back on the bed again, throwing her arm across her face to shield it from the late afternoon sun pouring in through the window.

"Sheba, tell me what happened," Felix repeats, grabbing her wrist as if to pull her arm away from her face.

"Felix," Jenna snaps, and Sheba jumps a little in surprise when she realizes that the whole gang's crowded into the room. She hadn't even noticed them. Felix's hand loosens its grip, but he doesn't let go.

"I'm telling you, I don't know," Sheba says. "I was talking with one of the priests... Oh!" She sits up again. "Ivan is from here."

"Who?" Felix's eyes are narrowed, watching her carefully as though she might collapse again at any moment.

"The Jupiter Adept who's traveling with Isaac. He was born here, and then he was adopted by the merchant Hammet, and they gave him the Shaman's Rod too because it was part of a prophecy."

"I heard about a prophecy too," Jenna says. "Apparently those wings they're building are supposed to be put on a massive ship that shows up when Jupiter Lighthouse is lit. Piers, did you happen to get a look at the geoglyph on the east side of town? It's life-size so they can build the wings to scale, and it looks a hell of a lot like your ship."

"They're not putting _wings_ on my ship," Piers says, crossing his arms. "That's absurd. What would it do with those? Ships belong to the ocean, not the sky."

"We may not have a choice," Kraden comments. "What if they put the wings on while we're still at the lighthouse?"

"I'm staying with my ship, then," Piers says, and Felix shakes his head.

"Absolutely not, we're going to need all the help we can get up there. I wouldn't put a lot of stock in this prophecy, all right?"

"It would be nice if it _was_ true, though," Sheba says. "It relies on us lighting Jupiter Lighthouse, which means you're doing the right thing, doesn't it Felix?"

The room goes quiet as Felix looks at her with something akin to surprise on his face. "Yeah, I... I guess it does. For once."

"For once?" Piers repeats. "Are you forgetting our meeting with King Hydros in Lemuria? He encouraged us to light the lighthouses as well."

"And we'll save our parents," Jenna says, touching Felix's shoulder.

He runs his hands down his face, and laughs a little. "This is the strangest feeling. I'm _optimistic._"

Sheba stands from the bed and, completely on impulse, kisses Felix on the cheek. "They had dice games in town, I'm gonna go play."

And without even bothering to wait and see his reaction, she skips out of the room. She makes it halfway down the hall before she hears Felix calling after her to please try and budget herself. Jenna catches up with her soon after, holding a small coin purse and shaking her head with barely-contained mirth.

"You should've seen his face. It took everything I had not to laugh."

"So the full-face blush runs in the family?" Sheba says, then has to swiftly dodge when Jenna moves to swat at her.

"Seriously, what was that about?" Jenna says.

Sheba shrugs. "I'm feeling optimistic too. Now let's burn some money."

"Ooh, I'm good at burning," Jenna says, and Sheba laughs. She spends the night doing passably well at dice games—well enough to do a little more than break even. Someone else might have been disappointed that they didn't make a bigger profit, but Sheba's time in Tolbi had taught her how difficult it was just to do that.

They return to the inn to find that Felix, Piers, and Kraden have already retired to their rooms for the night, so the two of them do the same. Miraculously, she falls asleep quickly, even though she'd expected to be up all night with nerves.


	4. Chapter 4

She wakes up at around the same time Jenna does, because Jenna had placed her boots next to her bed the night before and then tripped over them immediately upon getting up. Sheba sits up blearily and rubs her eyes, wondering to herself if such an important day could really have such a domestic start. As she gets dressed, she decides that it doesn't matter how the day starts, as long as it ends well.

She and Jenna meet with the boys and Kraden in the hallway of the inn. Felix speaks up, voice scratchy with sleep, as he pulls on his gloves. "Do we have any money left?"

"Give us some credit," Jenna says. "We broke even."

Felix raises an eyebrow. "I'm impressed. Those places are usually rigged so you have one big win, and then lose it all real fast."

"Oh, it was rigged," Sheba says. "I know a fixed game when I see one. But living in Tolbi taught me how to swing things my way."

"But not enough, huh," Felix says, the corner of his mouth quirking up into a smile.

"I didn't want to cause suspicion or they'd kick us out," she scoffs. "It's just lucky for them they didn't have any card games. I'm _really_ good at card games, I would've run them out of business."

"I'd be good at them too if I could read the minds of the other players," Piers says, no doubt remembering a game of blackjack he'd witnessed her playing with some hapless tourists in Apojii. (They'd needed healing supplies, and Piers's boat had sprung a leak, and…)

She giggles. "I'm just using my resources!"

The idle chatter continues for the duration of the hour's walk, as the sun slowly climbs above the horizon. The lighthouse looms above them, and just looking at it, combined with the wind at their backs, makes Sheba feel as though it's drawing her inside. She can't decide if that's ominous or comforting.

The closer they get to the lighthouse, the grass and flowers on the ground start to die out, leaving a fairly obvious radius of brown, cracked earth. Sheba wonders if it has something do to with the elements—maybe all the seeds had been blown away before they'd even had a chance to sprout? She pauses, tilting her head back to try and see the top from where the five of them stand, nearly at the base of the monument.

"You okay?" Jenna asks.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she answers, waving her hand noncommittally and moving ahead to walk up the short set of stairs and into the lighthouse. She's sure that Jenna can see through her, but doesn't say anything.

An old, bronze door sits immediately in front of them upon entering the lighthouse. It looks like it has no intentions of moving, and even when Felix makes a few attempts with Psynergy it still refuses to budge.

"I wonder if this means someone's ahead of us," Jenna muses.

"Unlike the rest of you, I actually did ask around yesterday," Kraden says with a hint of smugness in his tone. "No one in Contigo recognized anyone with Isaac's description in the past few days. So if anyone is ahead of us, it would have to be Agatio and Karst, since I doubt they would have made a stop in town."

"And Alex," Sheba says, glaring at the door in front of them.

"They won't get far without this," Felix reminds them, holding up the mythril bag containing the Jupiter Star. "Even if they make it all the way up to the aerie, they'd just have to sit there and wait for us."

"I say we take our sweet time, then," Jenna says, crossing her arms under her chest. "That'll show 'em."

"Now hold on," Piers says, but he's laughing a little. "We may still be first. There's another pathway up here, see? I'm betting there's a way to get past this door through there."

Felix nods. "You're probably right. If there's one thing we've learned it's that going the long way around is usually the right way. Any 'shortcuts' just turn out to be dead ends."

The hallway that Piers had discovered does indeed lead them around the massive door and into the rest of the lighthouse, where the puzzles only grow more difficult as they progress. It becomes a sort of race to see who can come up with the solution first—Sheba's reminded of the Ankhol Ruins, where they'd fallen into a similar pattern.

It's a stark contrast to the atmosphere of Venus Lighthouse, where the tension in the air had been so thick it choked her. She'd been paralyzed by fear, moving on autopilot and speaking only when spoken to, usually with monosyllabic answers. At the time, Felix had been an anomaly to her, because while he looked intimidating with his dark eyes and tall build, there was clearly more to him than was on the surface.

"I'm told you can read minds," he'd said, and his quiet husky voice had surprised her. She'd only nodded in response, and he held out his hand to her. "Read mine."

Shaking, she'd placed her hand on top of his, stepped into his mind and learned everything about him in mere moments. Guilt had hit her like a punch to the gut, and it had taken her a moment to realize it was his emotions she was feeling, not her own. His thoughts rang out in her mind, completely unrestrained, unlike when she'd tried to read the minds of any of her other captors.

_My parents, my friends, my sister, Kraden, and now there's you. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I swear on my life I will get you home when all this is over._

She'd only read his mind once or twice since then. Knowing that Saturos, Menardi, and Alex could see when she was doing it made her a little self-conscious and she worried that they might question her. So it had simply become habit to trust Felix instead of reading his mind to confirm his honesty. She saw the kindness in his eyes, the softness that shone through when he looked at his sister, and began to wonder why she'd ever doubted him. Most surprising of all, though, was the revelation that when this was all over, she didn't _want_ to go home.

And it wasn't like Lalivero was home, anyway. It only held that title for her because it was the place where she was raised.

A scream, a female voice, jerks her out of her memories, and Sheba has a brief moment of panic before she realizes it wasn't Jenna.

"It's Isaac and the others," Kraden says, looking only a little surprised. The other four had apparently been caught in some sort of trap. A pretty, blue-haired girl and a redheaded boy that Sheba very vaguely remembers from Venus Lighthouse are both stranded on a small ledge below a bridge they'd passed by earlier, that raised and lowered with the press of a button. Karst and Agatio make their appearance and, after some of their customary posturing, engage themselves in a fight with the only two left standing—Isaac and Ivan.

"Looks like they did make it here, after all," Felix says. Sheba can't tell from his tone exactly how he feels about that, but she guesses it's not great.

"And it looks like we're going to have to be friends now," Kraden muses.

"They came all this way just to try and stop us..." Jenna says, eyes fixed above them to where Isaac is fighting for his life. Sheba can feel exactly how torn up Jenna is watching this—she doesn't want to engage, and yet this is her childhood friend... So Sheba makes the decision for her, locking eyes with Felix.

"They need our help."

There's only the barest hint of hesitation from Felix—she sees the worries and the fears flash across his face—and then his eyes harden, and he nods and takes off at a sprint. Jenna's right at his side, and they both nearly collide with Alex when he materializes out of nowhere in front of them.

Jenna's sword is immediately out of its sheath and pointed toward the Mercury Adept's chest. "Stay out of our way, Alex. Don't test me right now."

He ignores her, brushing an errant strand of hair out of his face. "On your way to light the beacon, Felix?"

"Eventually, yes," Felix says, hand on the hilt of his own sword. "But we've got more pressing needs right now."

Alex takes a step towards them, and Sheba and Piers both reach for their weapons as well. "Come now, why the hostility?" He looks Felix straight in the eyes, ignoring the rest of them. "We both know you'd regret it if you left them. Allow me to help."

Sheba isn't sure how to feel as the healing light of Mercury envelops her. What game is Alex playing this time? What reason would he have to help? Karst and Agatio had clearly been expecting him to help them in cornering Isaac's party, but for some reason he'd bowed out. Why, why, _why_?

"There you go. Consider it a gift."

A bright burst of pain flashes through Sheba's mind and is gone just as quickly.

Alex steps aside and they get outside just in time to see Ivan collapse, and Isaac, hampered by his concern for the Jupiter Adept, quickly follows.

Jenna has the same steely look in her eyes as Felix. "They're _not_ going to kill Isaac," she says quietly, fiercely, and follows her brother to face their enemies.

The rest of it flies by in a blur. Isaac volunteers the Mars Star, Karst and Agatio leave for the aerie, and Felix follows. Luckily, Piers insists on coming with, otherwise Sheba's certain that Felix would have gone alone.

As soon as they're gone, Jenna drops to her knees and pulls Isaac's head into her lap, pressing her hands to his chest and pouring all the Aura Psynergy she can into him. Kraden had taken it upon himself to tend to Ivan, so Sheba to decides to help out the other two. She walks to the break in the walkway and peers over. At some point, their healer had fixed Garet's arm enough that he could pull himself up, and he was currently trying to convince her that if they could just get a better grip on the stones of the lighthouse, they could climb back up the wall.

"Excuse me," Sheba calls down, and they both look up, startled. "Can you two back up to the far edge of that platform? I'm going to help, but I need more room to get to you."

They do, looking mystified. She reaches into her pocket for the Hover Jade, rubbing her fingers against the smooth stone, and steps off the edge of the walkway. There's a brief moment of panic from the other Adepts, but she floats safely to their tiny ledge and smiles.

"Do you normally do dangerous things like that without any warning?" Garet grouses at her, and she laughs.

"You wanna try?" She holds out the Hover Jade to him. "Just channel your Psynergy into this."

"Sorry, Sheba," the Mercury adept suddenly speaks up, "but I think I should go up there first. Isaac and Ivan are going to need my help."

Garet nods. "Mia's right, I can wait. She already fixed me up, see?" He flexes his arm in demonstration.

"Okay," Sheba says, "I'm going to go up with you so I can come back and get Garet. Just put your hand on top of mine and we can channel into it that way."

Mia nods, and the rush of Mercury Psynergy reminds her of Alex's—there's a chilly prickle to it, like the first breath of air after walking outside in winter. The second their feet hit the upper ledge, Mia's back to business. "I'm sorry, Jenna, I need you to move. Isaac's probably got some serious internal injuries that I'm not sure you can fix."

"Oh! I'm... I'm sorry. I'll help Ivan, then," she says, and her tone is matter-of-fact but Sheba can see the hurt on her face. She turns away before Jenna can see her watching, then Hovers back down to Garet on the lower ledge, where he's waiting patiently.

"Sorry to keep you waiting," she says, and then holds her free hand out. "We've never really been properly introduced. I'm Sheba."

He grins, and when he shakes her hand his is so big that it completely envelops hers. "Garet. I should tell you, I'm really not that great with heights..."

"Well then, I guess the decision is yours. Do you want to climb up the bricks and probably fall to your death, or do you want to float for ten seconds to get back up there, and probably die a different way later on?" She holds out the Hover Jade expectantly, and he laughs out loud.

"I gotta say, you're different than I expected you to be."

"Good," she says. "I like to keep people on their toes."

They do eventually make it back up to the upper ledge, and not a moment too soon, as the building suddenly begins to shake underneath their feet. Sheba braces herself against the outer wall of the lighthouse, closing her eyes and waiting for the rush she's sure is coming.

It doesn't come. Nothing happens. The tremors subside and she's left standing there, mind a whirlwind of unanswered questions.

"Is it over?" she says to Jenna, who's still kneeling on the ground next to a much less beaten-looking, but still unconscious, Ivan. "They did it?"

"Yeah, it's done," Jenna says, sitting back on her heels. "And I have a splitting headache."

Sheba offers her one of the Psy crystals she had stashed away. Jenna takes it wordlessly, then stands up to stretch and walk away a bit, putting some distance between herself and the others.

"So now what?" Sheba asks, and Jenna shrugs, spinning on her heel.

"I'm not sure. I guess we wait for them to come back." Jenna's looking past her, eyes fixed instead on Mia, who's none-too-gently chastising Isaac for his recklessness in battle as she finishes healing him. He's awake and talking, but he hasn't stood up yet.

"Jenna, look at me," Sheba says, giving her shoulder a little shove. "You're freaking out about Isaac, aren't you?"

"He's hurt. I'm not a good enough healer to—"

"I mean, to be fair, I don't think you're a healer, period," Sheba says bluntly, and Jenna really does look at her, in the eyes this time.

"Sheba, what the hell?"

Maybe it's her disappointment with the lighthouse, maybe it's something else. She's not sure what it is, but she's not feeling particularly patient right now. "You're not! You're a fighter. It doesn't mean you can't _also_ heal, but it's never gonna be what you're the best at."

"That's not what I need to hear right now!

"I wasn't done, either," Sheba says. "You did what you were capable of, and it was enough. If you hadn't been there, he might not have lived long enough for Mia to get to him and finish the job. Her telling you to move wasn't her telling you that you weren't good enough, it was just her saying you should let _her_ do what _she's_ good at."

Jenna looks for a moment like she's going to snap back, but, wonder of wonders, she finally sighs and glances away. "Yeah, you're right...I know. I'm reading too much into it. It's just kinda always been something I struggled with, you know? Fire doesn't do much but hurt."

"You can kill weeds with fire," Sheba says. "And volcanic ash helps plants grow better."

"Where do you come up with this stuff?" Jenna says, smiling in spite of herself.

"Read it in a book once," Sheba answers, shrugging. The book had been an absolutely bone-dry boring non-fiction book about gardening various types of plants she'd never heard of, and probably would never see. But she'd read the thing at least twice out of sheer boredom while being held in Babi's palace.

Suddenly, Ivan stirs behind them. They both hurry to him, Jenna getting to him first and grabbing his shoulders to help him stand, and then lean against the wall of the lighthouse. "How long was I out?" he mumbles, barely audible, but Jenna freezes and looks sort of above his shoulder at the purple stones, trying to calculate the passage of time.

"That earthquake was a while ago, wasn't it? Ten, fifteen minutes?"

Sheba glances up like it'll help, even though the only thing she sees are more purple stones and the clouds above them. "I think you're right. But we're pretty close to the aerie here, it can't have taken them more than a couple minutes to get there and back..."

"Something's wrong," Jenna says abruptly, touching Ivan's shoulder once more to make sure he's steady against the wall before stepping away. "I'm going up there."

"Are you sure?" Sheba grabs her hand to stop her, but Jenna squeezes her hand once and lets go.

"You're the one who said I'm a fighter. I have a bad feeling that's what they need me for right now." And with that she takes off running for the aerie, leaving Sheba alone with the others.

She leans against the wall next to Ivan and slides down to sit, wrapping her arms around her bent knees and staring out at Weyard stretched before her. It would be a stunning view, if she wasn't so preoccupied. The lighting of the beacon doesn't seem to have caused much damage to the surrounding area, or at least not as much as Venus had. But she does feel colder as the wind sweeps past her, and she can feel power flowing through her like a conduit from where she touches the glowing purple stones of the lighthouse.

She glances over to where Mia seems to have finished fixing up Isaac, and the two of them are talking animatedly with Kraden and Garet. To her surprise, Ivan joins her sitting against the wall—she'd fully expected him to join his teammates. He looks about her age, with a small frame and slender hands. They even have matching blond hair. He grins at her.

"Hi," he says. "I'm Ivan."

"Sheba," she says automatically, and he laughs.

"Yeah, I know who you are."

"Did you feel anything when the beacon was lit?" Sheba says suddenly, and he blinks at her.

"Nothing out of the ordinary, no. But when we were at Mercury Lighthouse, Mia said she could use her Psynergy more freely without getting tired. So I think the same thing is happening here. You can feel it, can't you?"

"Yeah," Sheba says. "I thought it was just the adrenaline at first."

"Well, that's probably part of it." He shrugs. "You know, I thought you'd be different."

"Garet said the same thing," Sheba says. "I'm not sure what it is you're all expecting of me."

Ivan reaches out a hand to set it on her arm, and she feels him sparking into her mind before she can stop him. It's strange—outright _bizarre_, really—feeling it the other way around. She sets that aside for the moment and returns the favor, using the physical connection that Ivan had already made to step into his mind as well.

_This is kind of neat,_ he thinks, and grins at her.

_Yeah, and now we can talk without anyone hearing us. I'm serious, did you feel anything different?_

He narrows his eyes. _Not at all. What were you thinking would happen?_

_I don't know. Some kind of revelation._ She intentionally lets it slip, just a faint whisper in the back of her mind, that she thinks she's connected to Anemos. Ivan nods.

_Well if it's any consolation, I think you feel different. Inside your head, I mean. You've got an aura I've never really felt before._

_Should I be insulted?_

_Only if you want to be. _He shrugs. _I feel like talking like this should be weird, but it's not. It just feels normal._

_Yeah, I know. Especially because we were supposed to be enemies, up until about an hour ago._

_Does Felix hate us all?_

_He thinks __**you**__ hate __**him**__._

_We talked with a woman at a place called Lama Temple_—a feeling of confusion flashes through Ivan's mind—_and she said he carries a burden she wouldn't wish on anyone. We're still trying to figure out exactly what that means, but I think the others are more sympathetic now than they were. Especially after he jumped. _She sees his vision of that day, briefly—Felix diving, head-first, from the top of Venus Lighthouse, and feels the lurch of horror that Ivan had felt when he realized he'd just watched a man leap to, presumably, his death.

_Felix carries…a burden?_ Even Sheba isn't sure exactly what that means, and she's been inside Felix's head. _I have some ideas, but nothing too detailed. Sorry I'm not much help._

_It's fine. We can ask him ourselves._

Her thoughts wander to Felix for a moment, and then, abruptly, she realizes Jenna still hasn't come back either. _I'm sorry. I have to go._

He blinks at her in surprise and speaks aloud. "Wait, but Sheba—"

"You guys can catch up with Kraden, okay?" She scrambles to her feet and runs, sprinting up the stairs. Her vision from Shaman Village flashes through her head—Karst's scythe slicing down on Jenna—and it pushes her to go faster, until she arrives at the aerie and hears the distinctive sound of metal on metal. A fight.

She swings around the corner just in time to see her vision coming true, and without a second thought she lunges forward, hand outstretched, and what she meant to be a Spark Plasma spell has suddenly exploded beyond the normal reaches of her power. Thunder roars overhead, and a bright streak of lighting cracks from the sky like a whip, striking Karst dead-on.

As it begins to rain, coming down in sheets, immediately soaking them all to the skin, Sheba can't quite believe it—she's never caused an actual storm from one of her attacks before. Jenna uses the distraction to back away from Karst and catch her breath.

"You came," she says, and she sounds exhausted, but Sheba can hear the relief in her voice too.

"Isaac and the others are safe," Sheba says. "I thought something must have gone wrong," she begins, and then she gets a good look at Felix's face and falters.

There's blood streaked across his nose, and his eyes are dark and fierce even with the reflection of the beacon in them. His body language is tight, angry, and it hits her suddenly why she's so terrified of him—he's exhibiting the exact same mannerisms as Agatio, and she remembers similar postures from Saturos as well. The look on his face is that of someone ready to make a killing blow.

Jenna doesn't seem to notice her hesitation, and tosses her a small smile. "Gotta say I'm not too thrilled about fighting like this, but I'm glad you're here."

Sheba nods, eyes still focused on Felix. "Yeah, I..."

"Agatio, we're rapidly being outnumbered," Karst says, and her partner shakes his head.

"It's not as though we can stop now," he says. "We have to keep fighting." He moves to strike at Felix again, but Felix somehow hears it over the noise of the storm and whirls to block it. The _clang_ of their weapons makes Sheba's ears ring. She's fought before, even in fights to the death, but somehow, something about this seems sharper, harsher. Too real.

Sheba inhales deeply, once, and then charges in herself, deciding to join Jenna in fighting Karst.

Sheba isn't entirely sure how long they'd been fighting before she'd arrived, but the rest of the battle goes by quicker than she expected. The storm she'd created slowly eases and stops, but she doesn't feel any weaker. So she takes full advantage of her augmented power, and soon Karst collapses. Sheba knows that neither she nor Jenna have it in them to actually kill her, so they both step away, keeping a careful eye on her as they join Felix and Piers against Agatio.

The other Proxian is clearly tougher, but alone, it's not by much. Agatio falls after a well-placed blow by Piers, but even after it's clear that Agatio's completely down for the count, Felix moves as though he intends to strike again. She hears Piers speaking to him in a low, even voice, placing a hand on his arm, but can't pick up any words. Jenna goes to join them, and Sheba has no choice but to follow hesitantly behind.

"What should we do with them?" Sheba asks, and her voice shakes but she doesn't quite have the presence of mind to be embarrassed by it.

"Finish us," Agatio rasps. He coughs, and spits up blood.

"But think...what happens to your parents if neither we nor Saturos and Menardi return?" Karst says from where she lies several feet away. Sheba isn't sure when she regained consciousness, but she's glad it wasn't soon enough to make the fight last even longer.

Jenna scoffs. "Are you saying your people will kill our parents if you don't come back? Doubtful."

"Then quit standing around and do it," Agatio says. His eyes are locked on Felix. "You're of Prox, aren't you?"

And Felix, still with that black look in his eyes, takes another step forward to plant his boot on Agatio's chest, and raises his sword. Nausea rolls over Sheba in waves, and she feels as though gravity is physically dragging her down and pinning her in place. In her haze, she wonders if it's Felix, even in spite of the complete lack of evidence that he's using Psynergy at all.

Sheba remembers Felix soaked to his thighs in seawater, taking a bowl of milk to a forlorn white dog on a tsunami-wrecked island. He'd taken one look at the tiny turtle they got in return and said, "I know exactly what this little guy needs."

She can't reconcile the image in her head with the one in front of her eyes.

"No, Felix! Don't!" It's Alex's voice, as he races up the stairs to meet them. Sheba can't even bring herself to be surprised by his sudden appearances anymore. At least he'd walked in this time, like a normal person. "Don't you understand? If you kill them here, if Karst is not bluffing, everything you've done up until now will have been for nothing. Isaac will suffer the same fate you do."

It's like all the life drains out of Felix in the space of a breath. He lowers his sword and steps away, and Sheba thinks she can see his shoulders shaking. Alex steps into the space Felix had occupied, and they watch as he heals first Agatio, and then Karst.

"Alex, what are you doing? Are you going to make us fight them again!?" Jenna asks, looking for all the world like she's actually ready to do so. Sheba still feels like she might throw up.

"Look at them, they can barely stand. They're in no shape for another fight."

"You'd better not be expecting a big thank you for this, Alex," Karst says.

"I would never ask for your gratitude," Alex says, and he's not smiling, but his voice sounds smug anyway. "However, we should be going before the others arrive."

"And how are you planning on avoiding them on your way down?" Jenna asks, gesturing to the fairly obvious exits to the aerie below the stairs.

Alex shrugs. "Now that the lighthouse has been lit, the elevators should be fully operational again." He warps himself and the two Proxians to stand on one of the far towers, and the platform begins to swiftly drop downward.

Right on cue, Sheba can hear the voices of Isaac and his friends as they near the aerie. She forces herself to turn around in time to see them arrive, thankfully looking much better than the last time she'd seen them. The joviality they have doesn't last long, though, once they spot the blood smeared across the stones of the aerie.

"What happened here?" Garet says, immediately on the offensive. "And where'd those other two go?"

Piers jerks a thumb over his shoulder to where the lift is just returning. "They took off. With Alex, unfortunately."

"We want to know what's going on, Felix," Isaac says, and with that look in his eyes, bright and determined, Sheba can see why Jenna is so taken with him.

"It's not quite that easy," Kraden says, raising his hands in a placating manner. "There are a number of...extenuating circumstances."

"Oh, yeah? Like what?" Garet challenges. Felix looks away, and Garet starts up the stairs, reaching for the handle of his axe.

Ivan—bless him, Sheba's starting to appreciate him more and more by the minute—grabs the back of Garet's shirt to yank him backward, then runs halfway up the stairs to place himself between the two groups. "Stop it, guys. It's obvious none of us are in shape for another fight right now."

"Ivan?" Isaac says, looking questioningly—but not angrily, Sheba notes—at his friend.

"I'm just saying we should go back to Contigo and sort things out there. No weapons."

"That's a sound plan, Ivan. I fully agree," says Kraden.

Felix, however, is backing away and shaking his head. "I'm sorry, no—"

"Felix!" Jenna says sharply, but her voice breaks on the end. "He's right, it's time we explained ourselves."

"But Jenna—"

"We're going." She turns to Isaac, and attempts a smile. "I'm sorry. We'll be there, I promise. I... I hope you can still trust me."

Isaac doesn't return the smile, but he does meet her eyes. "I never stopped trusting you, Jenna." He spins on his heel and leads his small group to the elevator, pausing before stepping on to turn back and look at Felix again. "We'll be expecting you there, Felix. You owe us an explanation."

The elevator descends, leaving the five of them standing on the aerie watching it go.

After a pause, Jenna turns to Felix and slaps him clear across the face. "How could you," she says, and her voice is high-pitched again in the way it gets when she's going to start crying. Before even giving him a chance to explain, she turns and runs for the elevator that Alex's group had taken before, which had returned while they were talking. Felix simply stands there, staring at the ground, hand pressed to his face where she'd hit him. Sheba half expects him to heal himself, but he doesn't.

Sheba's eyes dart back and forth between the two siblings and then, sending a brief look of apology towards Felix, takes off after Jenna. "Hey, wait!"

Jenna pauses and allows her to catch up, and then keeps walking once she has, stepping on to the elevator and waiting.

"He's just upset," Sheba attempts, and Jenna shakes her head.

"No, he's stubborn." Felix, Piers and Kraden reach the elevator then, and she sets her jaw and turns away, making it obvious she's not going to say anything else on the subject.

The walk back to Contigo is nearly silent, a far cry from the casual chatter and jokes of the walk that morning. Piers jogs ahead to get rooms at the inn for them, and Sheba wishes she could go with him just for the sake of avoiding the tension in the air between the Valean siblings. When they reach the edge of town, though, Piers is already heading back their way, shaking his head.

"They only had one room available, the rest were full up," he says. "I reserved it, but..."

"Let's stay in the ship," Felix says abruptly, and starts to leave, but Jenna grabs his arm. If the way he winces is any indication, she's digging her fingers in more sharply than she needs to.

"No. We're not leaving town. If you get back on the ship you're going to leave without talking to them, and I won't let you do that."

"I can't have more people getting involved," he says tersely, and Jenna shakes her head, those tears that Sheba had seen starting on Jupiter Lighthouse finally spilling over.

"They're already involved, Felix! They saw you _die_, remember? And Mom and Dad with you. Who do you think was there to pick up the pieces of me when that happened, huh?" Felix just looks at her, and she continues. "Them. Isaac and Garet treated me like a _person_, instead of a fragile little doll like the rest of Vale. It's because of them that I—"

"That you _hated me_?" Felix bursts out, and Sheba jumps. She's never heard his voice reach that volume before. "Jenna, for the entire first month after Mount Aleph, you barely spoke to me, and you never looked at me if you didn't have to. You didn't believe me when I told you about our parents until Kraden, for whatever reason, decided to vouch for me. You thought Saturos and Menardi brainwashed me or something, remember?"

"Can you blame me?! You never seemed the happiest with me there, either!"

"Because I didn't want you involved! I was supposed to be the villain, Jenna!"

"Yeah, well you definitely acted like one. Would it have killed you to treat me like your sister instead of more baggage to cart around?"

"I couldn't! If I let you get close to me again, you'd just be disappointed when I—"

"Oh, here you go again," Jenna snaps, "putting words in my mouth like you know what's best for me. Yeah, it _hurt_, Felix, I'm not going to lie to you and say it didn't. But I forgave you for that because I love you. You're the only brother I have and I didn't want to lose you twice!"

"I'm _sorry_," Felix says, voice breaking. "Okay? I'm sorry."

Jenna looks just as shocked as Sheba feels, but her anger's clearly gone, and she reaches up to pull her brother into a hug. He leans his head against her shoulder, having to tilt his neck at what looks like a slightly uncomfortable angle to do so, and she rises up on her toes in an attempt to help. "Hey... It's okay, Felix. We're gonna make it out of this."

Sheba looks at Piers, who shakes his head and gives a little shrug. Kraden doesn't seem fazed, but Sheba and Piers aren't quite sure how to contribute, or if they're even needed. Sheba's known from the beginning, since the first time she ever read his mind, how emotional Felix is inside his own head. He _feels_ deeply, whether that feeling is compassion or sadness or anger. But she's never seen him let it all out like he had today.

Eventually, Felix's shoulders stop shaking and he pulls away from Jenna, straightening up and rubbing the back of his hand over his red eyes. He meets Sheba's eyes and attempts a smile.

"I'm okay."

She nods once, doubtfully, and finally says, "I think we should all get to bed."

"In our single inn room," Jenna says, and Piers shrugs apologetically.

"It was that or the ground outside."

It turns out they did get lucky with their room in a way, because there are two beds instead of just the one they were expecting, which would've been given to Kraden. Felix and Piers insist on Jenna and Sheba taking the remaining bed, and Sheba's own resistance to do so is just for appearances. The mattress looks thin and ragged but it's better than sleeping on the floor, and she's glad for it. She's fairly certain Jenna feels the same way.

Sheba had forgotten, though, that Jenna's increased body heat is nearly unbearable in close quarters. The heat keeps her awake longer than she's happy with, and before she knows it she's already lost control of her thoughts. The same worries from before Jupiter Lighthouse are still there, but multiplied several times over now that her only obvious path to an answer has failed.

With a frustrated sigh, she stands up and takes the two steps across the room to where Felix is lying on the floor. She crouches down next to his head and just looks at him for a moment, not really sure what she's looking for.

He opens his eyes. Of course he hadn't been asleep, Felix never falls asleep that quickly, and she knows it. She still jumps back a little in surprise.

"What're you doing," he says in a low voice, and she shrugs helplessly.

"I don't know. Worrying."

"About what?" he asks, pushing himself up and sitting cross-legged in front of her.

She sighs. "You really scared me today, you know."

He looks genuinely confused. "What? When?"

"During the fight," she says. "You were really going to kill them."

"It's a Proxian thing, they'd have no honor if they went home after a loss," he says, and she shakes her head.

"That doesn't make it okay."

"Sheba, please, don't..."

"I was so scared, Felix. Please promise me you'll never get like that again."

"I can't."

"Felix—"

"Keep it _down_," he hisses, and then looks at the floor. Eventually, he says, "They were going to take you with them."

"What?"

"They saw no use for Piers and I anymore. They were prepared to kill us, and Jenna. All the better for them, really, because then we wouldn't be going to Prox for our parents. But you..." He swallows. "Karst said they still could use you."

Sheba's heard similar things before, so it doesn't come as a surprise. The mind reading and the premonitions mean that everyone wants her on their side, whether _she_ wants to be there or not, and that's even without the Jupiter Adept wind powers. But she still shudders.

"And I couldn't let that happen to you again," Felix says. "I said I'd protect you."

"You did protect me," she begins, but he interrupts her again.

"It's never enough. It's one thing or the other with you, I swear, you're either fainting out of the blue or someone's trying to hurt you." He shakes his head. "I said I'd get you home, but I didn't think it would be this hard."

"That's okay," she says quietly, and he makes a questioning noise. "I don't want to go back to Lalivero anyway. Lalivero's not home." She rests her chin on her bent knees and looks past him, out the window. "I don't know where my home is."

He laughs a little, but there's no humor in it. "I know how that feels... I can't go back to Prox, and they probably won't take me back in Vale. But I have nowhere else."

"So we're both of us homeless," she says quietly, and he just nods, then turns to follow her gaze out the window, out at the stars.

"What are you looking for?" he asks, but she doesn't answer at first, biting her lip and trying to figure out how to phrase it.

"You know, Felix," she says, and he answers with a soft hum. "I thought I was going to find answers at the lighthouse, by traveling with you all. Or—or learn something about my past. But I didn't get any of that." Out of the corner of her eye, he turns slightly to look at her in surprise.

"_That's_ why you came with us."

"Yeah. I wanted to find my home." She shrugs a little. "I learned about the lighthouses when I was little—you remember, Lalivero is so close to Venus Lighthouse—but Jupiter called to me. I thought for sure I must have some ties to it. And then we came here, and there's all this talk about Anemos, and an ancient civilization in the sky..."

"It was Ancient Anemosian you were speaking when you fainted, wasn't it," he says, and she nods. No sense faking it anymore.

"Yeah. There's ruins in town here, with writing that I could read without even trying. So I thought that if we could just light the beacon..." She drops her head, hiding her face. "But we did, and nothing. No answers."

"I'm sorry." She glances back at him, and he's looking at her, but she can tell by his expression that he's not sure what she wants to hear.

"It's not your fault. I just... I'm gonna go back to bed."

He nods, and only after she's walked back across the room to lie next to Jenna does she realize he hadn't touched her at all during the entire conversation. And as confusing as those touches had been, she had started to expect them. They were like his way of saying "it's okay."

She eventually does fall asleep, but doesn't feel rested in the morning at all.


	5. Chapter 5

The five of them are all up and out of their inn room a few hours after the sun comes up, so that doesn't help with Sheba's exhaustion. Felix keeps glancing at her, but his face is drawn tight and neither of them try to broach the subject of their discussion the night before. The innkeeper seems more than a little antsy about getting the rooms cleaned up, but when Sheba sees the state of the town she can't really figure out why. The entire place feels suddenly wrong—it's too quiet. All of the shops and even the gambling tents have their doors tightly shut.

"Erm, excuse me," a young woman says, approaching their little group as they wander aimlessly around town. "If you're looking for Isaac, he said to meet him at the house on top of the hill."

"Thank you," Piers says, and Sheba carefully reads the woman's mind as they pass.

_That man, Isaac, didn't look too happy. I wouldn't want to be them right now._

Sheba can't quite fault the woman for that.

The instant the door to the house on the hill creaks open, Sheba can feel four pairs of eyes locked on them. But when she actually looks up, all four of them have some sort of relief in their gaze. She feels it wash over her too, like a fresh breeze—she'd been expecting fear or anger, instead.

"I'm glad you kept your promise, Felix," Isaac says, and Felix only nods. Sheba can't see his face, but she can see the tense line of his shoulders and the way he's shifting his weight on his feet.

_He can't honestly __**still**__ be expecting a fight_, she thinks, but then realizes he must be. That's Felix's default when it comes to them; he's defensive and scared.

"You'd better explain yourself," Garet says, but Jenna's already shaking her head.

"What is there to explain, Garet?" There's a desperation in her voice that Sheba's definitely not the only one hearing. "Has Felix ever harmed you? Have we ever fought against you?"

"We've been avoiding you," Sheba says, and hesitates when all the eyes turn to her. "But we never had any intention of fighting you."

"But Isaac's been worrying about Jenna nonstop since this whole ordeal began. How could she do that to him?" Ivan says, and Jenna blushes. Piers, who's standing too far back to see Jenna's face, speaks up when she doesn't respond.

"She didn't want a fight."

"Well I know that, now," Isaac says, "but that doesn't explain why you're doing this."

"Felix betrayed his hometown. That's why he hasn't been able to face you, Isaac," Kraden says.

"I was supposed to be the villain alone," Felix says. "But then they involved Kraden, and my sister, and...suddenly it was a lot bigger than me."

"'Supposed to be,'" Isaac repeats, eyebrows raised. "According to who?"

"According to myself," Felix says flatly. Isaac snorts.

"And yeah, we know he betrayed Vale," Garet says. "What you guys have never told us is _why._"

"All we know is, it was something about re-lighting the elemental lighthouses, which required stealing the elemental stars," Ivan says, "just following along with what Saturos and Menardi were trying to do, right? But what did they do to earn that?"

"They definitely never seemed friendly to _me_," Mia says. "But maybe I'm biased, considering the situation with Alex."

"Our parents' lives were at stake," Jenna says. "We had to help."

Isaac and Garet both turn to stare at her with nearly identical expressions of compassion, or maybe pity. Isaac opens his mouth to say something, closes it, and then Garet finally speaks up. "Jenna, your parents died in that storm..."

Jenna shakes her head. "Saturos and Menardi led a raid on the Sanctum that night. The storm was because they triggered something there and set off a trap."

"They found us floating in the river, after everything, and rescued us," Felix says. "They took us back to Prox and told us we could go free, if we helped them by giving them access to the elemental stars. We didn't have much of a choice."

"You keep saying 'we' and 'us,'" Isaac says, shoving a hand through his hair with an obvious edge of frustration to his voice. "But you still haven't said how this connects."

"That boulder that fell from Mount Aleph," Felix says. "It didn't kill me, but you know that. I'm saying that _no one_ was killed by the boulder that day."

It takes Isaac a long, silent moment before Felix's words register, and then Sheba sees the emotions whip across his face: Shock, disbelief, anger, and back around to shock.

"So that means—that means my father..."

"Your father is alive," Felix says. "I often spoke with him while we were in Prox together."

They all watch as Isaac's knees give out and he stumbles backward, just barely catching himself on some discarded crates behind him. Garet catches his friend by the elbow, and looks back at Felix with a disbelieving expression that echoes Isaac's.

"I—I can't—" Isaac shakes his head, and Jenna makes a sort of half-step movement toward him and abruptly stops herself.

"It's true, Isaac," she says quietly. "I didn't believe it either, at first, but… Kraden says vows made by a Proxian are stronger than law, and they go beyond death—their families will carry it on for them if they die. They rescued our parents and swore to take care of them while we completed our quest."

"So I'm just supposed to take the word of my enemies?" Isaac says. "The word of my enemies, and the word of a man that I counted among those enemies until about twenty-four hours ago?"

"Well if you won't take my brother's word, take mine," Jenna says, but Felix holds up a hand.

"No, he's right. There's no reason for him to trust me after everything I've done," he says. "But my memories won't lie, will they?" He looks at Sheba, then at Ivan, and they both nod.

"You'd have to try really hard to change your own memories into something we wouldn't recognize as fake," Ivan says.

"So do it," Felix says, reaching his hand out towards Ivan. There's silence, a couple seconds feel much longer than they are, and Ivan finally moves forward, taking Felix's outstretched hand and placing his other on Isaac's shoulder.

"Ready?" he asks. Isaac closes his eyes, takes a deep breath, and nods once.

Ivan's body pulses bright with Psynergy, the glowing light wrapping itself around Isaac as well. Nearly thirty seconds pass in absolute silence—Sheba can't even hear anyone breathing and imagines that they, like her, are all holding their breath.

"Stop, that's enough," Isaac says suddenly, his voice thick with tears, and Ivan, startled by the emotion there, withdraws his hand. Felix looks down at the floor and steps away, and Isaac rubs his hand over his face. "He's telling the truth. They're alive."

Everyone else in the room exhales as one, and Garet finally looks up at Felix again. "Why didn't you tell us from the start? We could've worked together to save your parents, couldn't we?"

Felix shakes his head. "Saturos and Menardi… They were too powerful. They wouldn't have wanted other people dragging them down."

"And there's another reason," Kraden says, and Sheba, by force of habit, tunes out. She knows what's coming—Lemuria, and the fact that the whole world is going to be destroyed if they don't light all the beacons. She's heard it ad nauseam at this point. Kraden was very proud of his role in developing the theory, and the fact that he'd been proven right was one of the biggest joys of his scholarly heart. Sheba loves the old man like a grandfather, but given enough prompting, he could _ramble._

So she zones out and lets the others carry the conversation, and instead focuses on Felix again. He still looks tense, hands at his sides and flexing in his leather gloves. But that sharp edge he had earlier is softening, he's not on the balls of his feet like he was before. He's relaxing, bit by bit. She can't help but feel a little proud of him.

She feels another presence seconds before the door opens, and turns at the same time as Ivan, who had probably sensed it as well. A tall, slender woman with purple hair slips in, and says, "Now that we know all this, shouldn't we be going?"

"Master Hama!" Mia says, and Ivan's just staring. Sheba can practically see his brain working, trying to figure something out.

"You...know Isaac?" Kraden says, and Isaac, who at some point had recovered his composure and was standing with the others again, nods.

"We met in a temple at the edge of the Lamakan Desert," he says, and the woman smiles at the rest of them.

"I am Hama, descendant of the Anemos. I was born here in Contigo, and inherited their power."

Sheba gasps as pain lances through her head again, but no one else notices. They're all trying to adjust to Hama's sudden appearance, on top of all the new information to grapple with.

"We just found out Ivan was born here, too, and I guess he's got a sister," Garet says.

Sheba's mind races a mile a minute. _We have the same hair. We're both Jupiter Adepts. I don't know my family, he doesn't know his family, we could be—I could be—_

"You don't mean..." she says, but Master Hama looks at her, smiles slightly, and misunderstands her question.

"That would be me, yes. I am Ivan's older sister."

Sheba feels it when Ivan reacts, which says something about the strength of his reaction because he's several feet away from her, and Sheba's own disappointment has set her head spinning. It takes her a moment to push her feelings down and away to deal with later. Ivan steps forward, but Hama shakes her head at him and he falters.

"Not now, Ivan. The elements are out of balance, and you must light Mars Lighthouse before it's too late."

"Agatio has the Mars Star, and he's on his way to light it now," Felix says, and Sheba blinks—Agatio having the Star was news to her—but Hama shakes her head.

"He will fail. There is a powerful force that does not want to see Mars rekindled."

"So we have to take over," Garet says, rolling his shoulders.

"But," Hama says, and they pause. "You all will fail as well, unless you pool your strengths together and fight as one."

In the back of her mind, bitterly, Sheba wonders if Hama rehearsed that before she said it, or if she'd made it up off the top of her head.

"It doesn't look like we have much of a choice—we have to go, now!" Kraden says.

"I hoped you would feel that way. I'll meet you out at the inlet with your ship." With that, Hama exits the house, and Ivan seems to deflate a little when she leaves, his shoulders slumping. Sheba realizes a split second later that she's done the same thing, and straightens up hurriedly.

Jenna turns to Isaac and Garet. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry we left Venus Lighthouse without seeing you, I'm sorry we never had a chance to explain—" She's cut off as both the boys move as one, enveloping her in a hug. "I just can't believe you two idiots managed to survive," she says, and it's muffled, but Sheba thinks she might be crying. Both Isaac and Garet are. As she watches, Piers nudges Felix toward them, and he shakes his head, but Jenna reaches out for him and pulls him in close, too.

Sheba takes that moment to cross the room and rest a hand on Ivan's forearm. He looks at her, and doesn't move away, so she reads his mind.

_Are you okay? _she asks, and feels the whirlwind of confusion and hurt in his mind as her answer.

_My sister... I never even knew I had one until today. I thought they meant you, at first, too. Are __**you**__ okay?_

_I'm disappointed, honestly. You remember that conversation we had on Jupiter Lighthouse about why I came…_ She shakes her head. _It's not important. They must have had a reason for not telling you. When this is all over, you can come back here and meet up with her, right? Get to know each other properly._

_Assuming she even wants me for a brother._

_Why wouldn't she?_

_She didn't contact me for fifteen years, even though she must have known where I was. The greatest merchant in all of Gondowan took me in—not exactly a low profile._

_Look, everybody has reasons. We had reasons for not joining up with you guys sooner, right? Misguided though they were. You just have to talk to her, and I'm sure you'll figure things out._

_I just hope we're all still alive by the end of this._

_We will be. Felix will keep us safe._ Sheba makes the mistake of letting her mind rest on Felix for a second too long, and she watches Ivan's expression morph into something a little like surprise. She fumbles to change the subject even though she knows he's already caught it. _Do you need help, Ivan? _

_I'll be okay, Sheba, but are you—_

She smoothly lifts her hand from his arm and breaks the connection, and he glares at her.

"Were you two just—?" Piers waves his hand between the two of them. "Mind-speaking?"

"We were having a private conversation," Sheba says, masking her embarrassment with haughtiness, and turns to walk outside the house where she sees Jenna, Isaac, and Garet have already gone. Felix had hung back, but he looks even less stressed than before, so she thinks that's progress.

"Oh, dear. If your Ivan is anything like our Sheba..." she hears Piers say, and Mia laughs.

"It's trouble, all right. We'll have to keep an eye on them."

She follows a ways behind Jenna and the others as they head for the docks, just so she can make sure she knows where she's going. They reach where Piers's ship is waiting, but even before getting too close to the docks, it's obvious the ship has been doctored by way of massive wings made of canvas and steel attached to the sides; the ones they'd seen when they first came to Contigo. It had seemed like a silly, cartoonish thing when she first imagined it, but seeing it in person was something else entirely—it looked downright majestic.

"I _knew_ his ship was the one from the prophecy," Sheba hears Jenna saying excitedly as she catches up to them.

"Do you think he'll be mad?" Sheba asks, and Jenna turns to her and shrugs.

"I guess we'll find out."

They don't have to wait long. Luckily, Piers seems pretty calm when he arrives, even conceding that the wings look "fittingly grand" for a ship like his. Sheba's honestly a little disappointed that she doesn't get to see Piers have a fit—just the idea of him throwing away that calm face he always seems to wear is enough to make her smile.

"This does raise a question for us, though," Mia says, as they're all hanging around the dock. "What are we going to do with _our_ ship?"

"That's a good point," Isaac says. "I think it makes sense for us to all take your ship, Piers, but I don't want ours landing in the wrong hands..."

"We could give it a Lemurian sendoff," Piers suggests. "Sail it out into the middle of nowhere and set it on fire—"

"_Yes_," Jenna says, at the same time that Garet says "I _knew_ I liked you."

"Of _course_ you two would be all for it," Felix says, sighing and running a hand through his hair. "Piers, did you really think that one through?"

The Lemurian shrugs. "I don't see the harm in it."

"Now hold on, it's still a perfectly good ship," Isaac protests. "I feel kind of bad just burning it to cinders."

"No, no, you said it yourself, you don't want it landing in the wrong hands," Garet says, clearly already too attached to the idea of burning it on the water. "If we just set it adrift somewhere, it's definitely going to end up on some coastline and somebody's going to try and mess with it. Like Alex."

They all grimace, and if it hadn't been decided before, the mention of Alex's name had done it for sure.

Felix turns to Garet and Jenna. "We're taking off anything explosive first, clear?"

"You never let me have any fun," Jenna pouts, and Felix rolls his eyes.

Sheba notices Master Hama standing off to the side with another one of her mysterious smiles, and thinks, _Well, it's now or never._ Hama's expression doesn't really change as Sheba approaches—she just says, "Hello, Sheba," despite the fact that she would have no reason to know Sheba's name.

"If you're trying to freak me out, it's not working," Sheba answers, and Hama actually laughs.

"Did you want to ask me something?"

Sheba blinks in surprise, she's not used to people cutting straight to the chase like that. Master Hama in particular seems like she's the type to speak in nothing but riddles, but maybe that's not the case. "What did you mean when you said you were a descendant of the Anemos? Is that just another way of saying you're a Jupiter Adept, like me and Ivan?"

Hama pauses. "In a way. All those who inherit Anemos's power are Jupiter Adepts, but that inheritance is not by blood alone—not all Jupiter Adepts are Anemosian. Do you understand?"

"Yeah," Sheba says, as her heart sinks. Maybe that was what Ivan meant when he said she 'felt different'. He meant she wasn't a descendant, so she had no connection—she'd just picked it up through other means, like the werewolves in Garoh had picked up their powers thanks to Air's Rock nearby. "Is there an easy way to tell if it's one or the other?"

"Were you born here in Contigo?"

"I... I don't know." Sheba bites her lip. "Can you read minds? That might be easier."

Hama's laugh is like a bell. "Of course I can." She touches Sheba's arm, just a light brush of fingers, and Sheba immediately feels it when she enters her mind. There's a silence, and then Hama's eyes go wide and she withdraws her hand a bit too quickly.

"Is everything okay?" Sheba asks, and Hama just looks at her for a second.

"My child..." Hama says, and Sheba freezes for a moment when she thinks Hama might mean that literally. But then she continues: "You are of Anemos. But not in the same way that my brother and I are."

"What?"

"I—"

"Sheba, we have to get going!" Jenna's voice carries across the docks, and Sheba glances back and forth between the two of them. Hama, after a moment, nods at her.

"You are special, Sheba. Do not doubt that." She smiles again. "Find me again once the final lighthouse is lit. I'll explain everything then."

"Do you promise?"

"Yes, of course. Now go, your friends are waiting."

Sheba nods and hurries off, turning once she reaches the deck of the ship to give her a little wave. As they get the ship going—they even manage to make it fly—Sheba watches Hama's figure shrink into the distance. But even through all the excitement, Sheba notices Jupiter Lighthouse looming over them again, and she's reminded of how much she missed. She'd been looking forward to walking out of Jupiter Lighthouse a different woman, more knowledgeable, stronger, but all it left her with was confusion.

Jenna, even through her excitement about the impending ship-burning, notices. "Sheba, you've been awfully quiet. Are you okay?"

Sheba meets Felix's eyes, and he gives her a gentle little nod. She lets it all spill out—her insecurities and her weakness and her sadness, and the way she'd built Jupiter Lighthouse into something that it wasn't. She doesn't cry, but it's a close thing. The only thing that keeps her from it is the thought that an emotional torrent of information is probably enough for their new party members to handle, they don't need to see her crying on top of that.

Kraden, of all people, empathizes. She can't quite believe it, but the old man has more in common with her than she thought. And she knows she's lucky having foster parents like Faran and Aisha, but at the same time she thinks it might have actually been easier for her if she didn't have them. Or at least, if she hadn't had the rest of Lalivero. Kraden didn't have Psynergy to grapple with as a child, but he did have his intelligence... They're both odd ducks, she decides. And after they've had the ship out on the ocean for a while, she hugs him.

"Thank you," she says, and the old man smiles at her.

"Any time, my dear."

They manage to remove everything of interest from Isaac's old ship, which includes a very large stash of alcohol that apparently no one but Garet had known about. He shrugs and says "It was in the basement of Hammet's palace, and he told us to take anything we wanted, yeah?"

Ivan's flabbergasted—"You _stole alcohol_ from Master Hammet!?"—and Mia has a sort of long-suffering look on her face as she watches them bickering. Isaac and Jenna, meanwhile, are sitting on the deck of the ship sorting through the bottles.

Piers announces that the old ship is clear, and Jenna and Garet are immediately on their feet. There's a certain amount of pomp and circumstance before they actually light the thing up—Isaac gives a brief eulogy, but it's only brief because Garet hassles him into cutting it short.

It's exciting at first, but Sheba can't stay interested in the burning ship for too long. She notices Felix slipping inside the ship and follows him, catching the door before it swings shut behind him.

"Whatcha doing?"

"I'm going to make lunch," he says, and then pauses as he remembers the time. "Or I guess it's dinner now. It's food, at any rate."

"Want help?"

"You don't want to watch them anymore?"

"Nah. It got boring after a while."

"I tend to think of cooking as sort of a one-man job," he says. She gives him her best puppy-dog face, and it apparently works because he immediately changes his mind. "Could you find that fish we had downstairs? There's something I saw in Tolbi when we passed through that I wanted to try replicating, but I was saving it for a special occasion."

"Pasta?" she says excitedly. She had mixed feelings about Tolbi, but the food had been _amazing. _He nods.

"I think the version I saw involved clams, or some other kind of seafood, but I'm not sure if that fish is going to be good for much longer, so... Might as well use it."

As they get into cooking, she starts to realize why he thinks it's a one-man job. He's all over the place, gently nudging her out of the way so he can check on the doneness of the fish while stirring the sauce with his other hand. She tries to take the spoon out of his hand so she can stir it for him, but he shakes his head and tells her to watch the vegetables instead. She pokes them around the frying pan until they start browning, and without even being prompted he takes them and combines them with the pasta.

He's splitting one of the pieces of fish in half to check for doneness when Sheba realizes they've drawn a crowd, presumably because of the scent of the food. "How much longer on that, I'm starved," Garet says, and Sheba glances at Felix.

"Thirty seconds," he answers, tossing the pasta, vegetables, and fish together and dumping the finished result into a large serving bowl. He grabs another stack of individual bowls from a cabinet, drops them on the counter and turns with a flourish. "Done. Tolbi-style seafood pasta, if you were curious."

"Tolbi had the _greatest food,_" Ivan says, grinning.

"I can only assume," Felix says, and then shakes his head when Garet moves for the food. "Ah, no, did you help? Sheba goes first."

Sheba grins and sticks her tongue out at Garet—it's funny how natural that feels, even though she only met him twenty-four hours ago. She serves herself and Felix watches when she takes a bite.

"It's perfect," she says, and he smiles. A natural smile, one that makes his eyes lighten and her heart flutter in her chest. She flops down on the couch and watches as the rest of their strange little band lines up for dinner.

Ivan settles next to her on the couch, and after a moment says, "I think there's a name for this."

"For what, the food? It's just pasta, isn't it?" she says, watching as Felix pours himself a glass of something from Garet's alcohol stash.

"No, for when a person falls in love with their captor," Ivan says, and there's a wicked little grin on his face. Sheba chokes on a piece of tomato as he laughs, and she downs her water before jabbing her elbow into his side.

"He's not holding me hostage," she whispers sharply, and he shrugs.

"But you're not denying you're in love with him?"

"It's not like that," she stammers, fighting back a sense of déjà vu and a fierce desire to apologize to Jenna for every crack she ever made about Isaac. "He saved my life, you know."

"Yeah, we saw. And I don't think he'd jump off a lighthouse for just _anybody_," Ivan says, twirling his pasta around his fork.

"Maybe he would've, you don't know," Sheba says stubbornly, and then it hits her. "Wait, are you saying you think that _he_—?"

"There's an easy way for us to find out if he does," Ivan says with a shrug.

"It's an invasion of his privacy," she says weakly, and stabs at a piece of fish.

"What does talking to him have to do with invading his privacy?" Ivan asks, being deliberately obtuse, and she groans.

"You know what I mean," she says.

"But I saw you reading his mind on the aerie of Venus Lighthouse," Ivan says. He does sound honestly confused, so she explains.

"They all found me in the Suhalla Desert, and right off the bat he told me I could read his mind whenever I wanted. So I did...back then. But I haven't done it in months." She leans forward to set her now-empty plate on the low table in front of them. "It got easier to just trust him rather than read his mind all the time."

"Saves you a headache," Ivan says, and she nods, laughing a little. A shadow falls over them, and she looks up to see Garet with two glasses in one hand and a bottle in the other.

"You two want anything?"

"What is it?" Sheba asks, and Garet turns the bottle around so she can see the label. It's some kind of wine, but she doesn't understand much beyond that. She shrugs anyway and says "Sure," and Garet wastes no time in pouring out glasses for both her and Ivan. She takes a sip and isn't entirely sure what the big deal is—it's good, but it's not so great that she'd drink enough of it to lose her wits.

"Sorry about him," Ivan says, grinning as Garet tries to hassle more people into drinking. "He's always like that."

"Yeah, it doesn't seem like he's changed much from Jenna's stories." She grins. "But I like him. He's fun."

Ivan snorts, but there's fondness in the derision. "Fun. Yeah, I guess that's one way to put it. I'd put him more towards 'obnoxious,' though."

"Well, maybe I'll start to see it that way after we've all been cooped up on a ship for a bit," Sheba says, and then realizes Felix is gone. She takes another sip of her wine and glances around the room to see if maybe he just moved somewhere, but doesn't see him. She tosses back the rest of her wine—there wasn't much in the cup—and sets it down, then stands up abruptly enough that her head spins a bit.

Ivan raises an eyebrow. "What's up?"

"Did you see where Felix—"

"Outside," Ivan answers, with a smirk on his face that says he was just _waiting_ for her to notice.

"Thanks," she says, and he makes a shooing gesture at her. So she goes.

He's not at the wheel like she was expecting, instead he's just leaned over the rail of the ship looking up at the sky. She joins him, and after a moment, asks, "What are you doing out here by yourself?"

"Fresh air," he says with a shrug. "For all the fuss Hama was making about an elemental imbalance, it's not a bad night out. Good for stargazing."

She cranes her neck back, trying to pick out constellations, but she was never any good at it. She ends up just looking at him again, until he notices and meets her eyes.

"Felix," she says, and raises a hand. He doesn't move away, and lets her hand graze his face, stuttering across the two days worth of stubble on his cheek. She's surprising herself with her boldness again, but hopefully it'll work in her favor this time, too.

"What are you doing," he asks, and his voice is so quiet she barely hears.

"I'm doing what you always do," she answers.

"Hm?"

"You know." She strokes her thumb over his cheekbone and he blinks. "The thing where you touch me kind of like this, and you look at me like you want to say a million things all at once but then..." She drops her hand. "Then you walk away and you pretend like it never happened."

He stares blankly at her for a moment, and all she can think is, _I really messed this up._

She turns to leave, but he grabs her wrist before she can take more than two steps away. "It's an anchoring thing," he says. "I'm reminding myself that you're still with me."

"Where else would I be?" she says, and he lets out an exasperated breath.

"It's not like I'm the only one doing things like that. You put your head on my lap and told me to play with your hair..."

"I—that's different," she stammers, and starts to pull away, but he tightens his hand at just the right time so he's holding her hand now, instead of her wrist.

"Different how?" He's not wearing gloves and his hand is warm in hers. His eyes—oh no, she really shouldn't have looked him in the eyes, because they're soft and filled with concern and it _hurts_ because she can't explain this to him, not now.

_I'm doing those things because I might be in love with you, _she thinks, _and you clearly don't feel the same. Oh,__**Thor**__, I can't do this!_

Something snaps inside of her, and she sparks him with a jolt of Psynergy. He releases her hand, more from surprise than anything, and she turns on her heel and runs inside before he can stop her. The others fall abruptly silent when she comes in but she keeps running, overshooting her room and going to Piers's library instead, slamming the door shut behind her and locking it.

She distinctly hears Jenna say "Felix, what did you_ do_," and then another door opens and closes—presumably Jenna going to talk to him. Sheba doesn't know exactly how to feel about that.

It's only when Piers clears his throat that Sheba realizes he's in the library with her. She'd completely missed him at first, sitting at one of the tables with several books open in front of him.

"Is everything all right, Sheba?" he asks, and she nods, then shakes her head.

"I just..." She takes the unoccupied chair next to him and pulls her legs up on it, hugging her knees to her chest. "Can you just talk to me about something for a bit, please? What are you reading?"

"They're sort of hand-made almanacs from Lemuria—research notes, basically," he says, pushing one of the books closer to her so she can see. The pages are completely covered in notes and scribbled diagrams, and it takes her a moment before she can even decide what to focus on. "It might have seemed like a closed-off place when we visited, but thanks to King Hydros, we all tried to keep as much detail recorded as we could."

She's interested in spite of herself. "So like, weather predictions and stuff?"

He nods. "Exactly. We noted crop forecasts and wave patterns, based on what little we could see of the ocean."

"You kept it on the ship?" she asks, and Piers shakes his head.

"Not normally, but I packed it when I was getting ready to leave," he said, flipping idly through. Sheba sits forward to watch, letting her legs drop from the chair to sit normally.

"What's that chart?" she asks, and he pages back to get the full-page spread completely covered in one large diagram, with smaller graphs crowded in the margins.

"These are weather patterns from inside Lemuria. If you look, you can actually pinpoint certain events, though I didn't know at the time what they symbolized." He gestures to a specific point where the temperatures drop suddenly, and then even out again, becoming lower on average. "You can see where the sudden drop in temperature occurs—that coincides with Mercury Lighthouse's lighting."

Sheba follows along the table, pausing in confusion when the data suddenly stops. "Wait, what happened there?"

"Do you remember how I left Lemuria?" he prompts.

"You said it was because of that tidal wave, by accident—oh! So this right here was Venus Lighthouse," she says, and he nods. She's starting to understand why Kraden loves science so much. It's like putting together pieces of a puzzle.

"Exactly," Piers answers, then gestures to the blank columns. "And I then stopped updating because, of course, I was no longer in Lemuria."

"Except here," she says, pointing to a short series of entries, followed by more blank space. "We were only in Lemuria for a few days, and you updated it even though you only had a small amount of information? How come?"

"Well, King Hydros sent me to do research, so I thought I might as well continue what I was already doing to use Lemuria as a comparison point," he says with a shrug, but something about the way he says it rings a bit too hollow in Sheba's ears.

"No," is all she says at first, and Piers glances at her in surprise as she works through it. "I think... I think you're homesick." She chews on her lip for a moment as Piers's expression doesn't change, but she decides to stick to her guns. "Yeah. You might've been bored to tears of it, but Lemuria's the only home you've ever known, and you wanted to record all you could about it while you were there, even if it was for a really short time. Even if it's just a weather report."

Piers finally smiles at her, but she doesn't miss the sadness that's there in his eyes, too. "You're exactly right. And even without mind-reading, you figured that out. I didn't realize I was being so obvious about it."

"You should have said something while we were there, we could've stayed longer! You know Kraden would've died for it."

"To be honest," Piers says, "I knew I couldn't ask for that. Our mission is incredibly time-sensitive, and I would have felt incredibly guilty had I asked for more time. And I knew that trying to explain my own guilt wouldn't help, so I simply avoided the subject. I wasn't sure if you would understand my reasoning."

"Well how are we supposed to understand if you don't _talk_ to us," she says, and Piers smiles a little.

"I do agree that a lot of the problems on this journey so far could have been solved if we'd all discussed things," he says, and then pauses. "Incidentally, I don't think you ever told me why you came barging in here."

Sheba just looks at him for a second. He has a sort of knowing look in his eyes, and raises one eyebrow at her.

"Oh, _fine_," she says finally, shoving her chair back and standing up. "And I thought _I_ was the mind-reader in this group."

"I was young once too, you know," he says, smirking. She shakes her head and starts to head for the door, but turns around at the last second and hugs him, with a quick 'thank you', and then leaves to go back up on deck.

As she's making her way through the now-deserted living room, it occurs to her that Felix might not even still be on watch. Her conversation with Piers hadn't taken _that_ long, but maybe Jenna had chased Felix downstairs after going out to talk to him. Something in her hopes that Felix won't be on watch anymore when she goes out, so she won't have to face him.

But of course he's there. He must have heard the door open, but he doesn't react as she cautiously walks across the deck towards him, heart racing.

"Felix?" she says, and her voice comes out too quiet. He hears her anyway, half-turning in her direction, moonlight casting shadows across his face.

"Hey," he says, matching her in volume, and then: "I'm sorry."

She stops, still a ways away from him. "What?"

He turns more fully to look at her, an apologetic sort of half-smile on his face. "Sorry. Sometimes I'm harsher than I mean to be."

"What are you talking about?" she asks, utterly mystified.

"I scared you, right?" he says, and she just stares at him. "You ran off, and then Jenna came out here wanting to know what I said, and I wasn't sure, but..."

"Felix," Sheba says again, starting to walk closer to him, but he either ignores her or doesn't hear.

"It's part of what we've been doing, all this traveling, I think I'm sometimes more intimidating than I—wait, wait, what are you doing?"

She's almost toe-to-toe with him at this point, having to tilt her head back to look into his eyes. "I thought you were intimidating for maybe the first hour after we met."

"And then?" he says, and is it her imagination or is his voice a little shaky?

"Then you opened your mouth," she says, and then she reaches for the front of his cloak and uses it to pull him down to her level, and kisses him.

It's clumsy and awkward and not at all romantic, more like their faces bumping together than anything. It's not the first kiss she thought she was going to get. But she's okay with that, she decides. Her life is not a romance novel, and she doesn't want it to be. She's been a captive princess before, and once is enough.

His eyes are still closed as she pulls back, and she realizes with some fascination that his eyelashes are actually very long. How she could have ever looked at him and not thought of him as beautiful, she's not sure.

"Read my mind," he says, eyes still closed, and the two of them are so close that he doesn't need to raise his voice above a whisper. But the way he says it reminds her so much of the first time they met that she hesitates for a moment. He notices it, because of course he does. "Do it," he says, and he puts his hands gently on her waist.

When she finally steps into his mind, it feels like coming home.

_I'm not afraid anymore._

"Of what?"

_Of storms. _She feels it when he tries to hold back the rest of his thought, but it slips through anyway: _I fell for you, after all._

"I'm a storm?" she asks.

"Of course you are." He falters, and his thoughts continue for him once again. _All the storms I've ever seen have been these uncontainable raw forces of nature, and you're just the same. For a little while I doubted your strength, and I'm sorry for that. We need you. I need you._

"I need you, too," she says, but he shakes his head.

_No, you don't. You'd be fine without me._

She jerks away from him, and leaving his head is almost painful. "How can you say that, Felix? Are you going to leave us?"

"I just told you I need you, didn't I?" he says, and he looks a little embarrassed, confirming her suspicions that he'd revealed more than he planned on.

"You can't leave," she says anyway, stubbornly. "You're mine." It slips out before she catches it, and her face flushes red the instant the words leave her mouth. _Serves me right_, she thinks. _Now we've both said more than we meant to._

But he smiles, closes the distance between them again by taking her into his arms, and she slides back into his mind. He dips his head and kisses her again, and _this_ is the kind of kiss that had always shown up in her foster mother's romance novels, with his arms tight around her waist and tingles rushing across her skin.

_I am yours_, he thinks. _And there's no one I'd rather belong to._

His hand glides up from her waist, tracing along her spine, and she feels his fingers sliding into her hair. When he pulls back again, he leaves his forehead pressed against hers. She's lightheaded and a little dizzy, and for a second she thinks that's normal, before she gets a familiar, piercing pain in the back of her skull, shoving its way forward.

She pushes him away, squeezing her eyes shut, and there's a ringing in her ears that almost drowns out the startled, panicked way he says her name. Her legs buckle and Felix lunges to catch her, shouting for Piers.


	6. Chapter 6

This is—it's not wrong, not entirely. There aren't visions, at least not the kind she's grown used to. It's just blackness—pure blackness, cold like the dead of night and without any of the comfort that comes with sleep. She's not sure who she is, where she is, what she's supposed to doing. She knows, somehow, that she exists in a world elsewhere and this isn't it. She knows she's not in the right place or feeling the right things. But every thought, every reaction, feels like trying to move through thick mud, sticking to her and dragging her down.

_**Sheba. **_There's another voice inside her head, and it doesn't sound familiar. There's a transcendent sort of aura to it, the echoes it produces in her mind fade into imperfect whispers that sound like another language entirely. It's old, she can feel it, but when she tries to judge how old it is, or where it is, her mind reels back as if burned. So, probably not a great idea to get too deep into that. The fact that it had addressed her by name is concerning, but not technically abnormal, yet. It could just be a figment of her imagination for all she knows.

_I don't want you, voice,_ she thinks at it. _You or the visions. I've had enough._

_**Enough**__**?**_ The voice sounds confused by her irritation, and that spurs her on further.

_You heard me. I don't want to do this anymore._

** _Sheba. Your powers are a_ **_**gift.**_

_Says who? I've been hearing that all my life, mostly from people who don't know what they're talking about._

** _We are Anemos._ **

_What, all of it?_

**_We. Are. Anemos. _**The voice follows the statement with a barrage of images, some that she's seen before and others that she hasn't. Jupiter Lighthouse halfway built. The ruins in Contigo, but looking less like ruins and more like an actual livable place. Men and women she doesn't recognize. The stars.

_Okay, you've answered one question and given me a whole bunch more._

** _You know the answers._ **

_I'm literally telling you I don't. All this passing out, visions, voices-in-my-head stuff has given me more questions than I've ever had. And you're freaking out my friends on top of that._

** _You are an echo of what we left behind. You stand as a beacon._ **

_Okay, sure. At least you've got consistent imagery with the lighthouses._

There's a moment of very pointed silence. _**You mock we who incepted you.**_

_Don't go! I'm sorry. _Confirmation, finally! The voice, the Anemos, believed it created her. _Sorry—I'm not mocking, I'm just running out of patience because it's been fifteen years of this with no answers. I'm glad you're here.__ You keep saying "we", so does that make you a representative of my ancestors?_

**_We are Anemos._**Another barrage of images, faster than before. People of all ages and sizes gathered together in a town square, watching a woman in elegant robes speak at a podium. A man building weapons, turning away from his anvil to look at someone else. A pregnant woman with her hands pressed to her forehead. Did the Anemos mean to tell her that she was speaking to all of them at once?

_Okay, so not a representative, then. How did you all choose me as the echo? It seems like it would be hard to make a compromise._

** _There was no need. It was Fate._ **

She thinks about the pregnant woman again, tries to hone in on that image in her mind. Was that her mother? If she'd been the only pregnant woman at the time, that would have made Sheba the only choice. But when had Anemos lifted off? The timing wouldn't work out, surely Anemos had lifted off hundreds or thousands of years ago, not fifteen.

_Why leave anyone behind at all?_

Another silence, but not quite so pointed this time. She thinks that maybe she can feel a twinge of bitterness, but not directed at her—maybe they directed it at themselves. _**It was right. We could not survive this way, but could not bear to forget our humanity.**_

_Couldn't survive, in what way? You stopped being human?_

** _We understood ourselves beyond speech. We thought ourselves better. It was...a mistake._ **

_Understood beyond speech..._ she echoes, racking her brain. Could they be referring to mind-reading? Perhaps somehow they had all become part of each others' minds, and couldn't disconnect. The idea of it, being connected to an entire city's worth of people, is horrifying. They'd have no secrets from each other, no arguments, no questions. They could plan ahead for any eventuality that any of them considered, with enough time.

_How long have things been this way?_

_**Time has no meaning. We have no use for it here.**_

_So you mean... _She paused, struggling to phrase her thought in a way that was simple enough to ensure she would get a simple answer. She could feel things heading back into confusing territory, and the more time she spent asking clarifying questions, that was more time wasted. _So you sent me back...to your past? And you're sending me visions of my future?_

**_It is the same, for us. We chose a moment where you were needed._**

_Lalivero...needed me? Faran needed me?_

**_The world needed you._**

_The entirety of Weyard?!_ Somehow that's worse, in her mind. She could have maybe handled being an answer to Faran and Aisha's prayers for a child, but the idea of being some sort of savior was a bit too heavy to handle.

_ **You represent the power of Anemos in restoring life to the world.**_

_By lighting the lighthouses with Felix and the others? Is that helping?_

** _We have no desires beyond what you have already done for us._ **

_But I haven't done anything!_

** _We will not abandon you. Continue to live._ **

_Thank you, but—_

** _You are needed._ **

A single high note lowers in pitch and fades away. A dissonant chord of voices fades in and out of her understanding

"…We have to…"

Sheba has a massive headache, pounding at the front of her skull. She feels distinctly like she'd been somewhere, seen someone, but can't remember where or who.

"You heard what..."

Had there been multiple people, or just one? It's all jumbled together.

"…Look, she's not…"

Are these the same voices as before? Something about them is familiar, but she can't put her finger on why.

"Let me try again."

_Sheba?_ Suddenly it's not her own voice. It's not like before, either. For some reason, she initially associates the voice with Ivan, but then realizes it's not him.

_Who are you? _ she asks.

There's a whirl of emotions in response to her question, again feeling sort of like Ivan, but mixed with—something else. It feels like green. Not green like jealousy, but green like wilderness. Like stepping outside into the first warm day in spring. _Something's wrong, I can't—_

_Focus, Felix, you're making it worse._ That felt like Ivan for sure. Were there—two people? Three, including her? How could she be sure?

_Felix?_ Why does it feel like she should know that name?

_Can you open your eyes, Sheba? Are you in pain?_

_I don't know. _She's not entirely sure she has a body. She just exists.

_Where are you right now?_ There's Ivan again. Why can she identify him so clearly, but everything else is fuzzy and indistinct?

_It's dark. There are…trees, maybe? Or water. I don't know. I felt trees before, but I think I can hear water._

_Felix, you need to help out or let go. Pick one._

There aren't any words, but there's another flurry of emotion. Mostly worry, but with a quiet undertone of resolve. Then there's a soft current of Psynergy, reaching toward her like a flower tilting toward the sun. It's like the trees again, she realizes. She reaches for it, and when she makes contact the wave falters, almost flinches away.

_No, come back, I almost—_ She reaches again and this time manages to latch on, somehow. She has a sense like she's losing her grip, slipping and falling, and then there's a painless jolt as something takes hold. There's a wooden deck underneath her, uncomfortable—she has a body again? Starting from her neck, a prickling sensation works its way down to her toes.

She flexes her fingers, and realizes both of her hands are being held. Slowly, with great effort, she opens her eyes.

She's lying flat on the deck of the ship, Felix on her left, Ivan on her right. Felix has one of her hands, Ivan has the other, and they both have their free hands outstretched over her body, gripping each other's forearms. Ivan's the first to recognize that her eyes are open, and releases his hold on Felix, slumping backwards with a sigh of relief.

"Felix, your nose is bleeding. You overworked yourself." That's Jenna's voice, and Sheba has to blink and refocus as she realizes that the other six of their newly expanded party are crowded around them. Felix starts to move like he's going to just clean the blood with his sleeve, but Jenna whips a handkerchief at his hand. "Gross, no. Use this."

"What happened?" Sheba asked, but it comes out so breathy she's not sure anyone heard her at first. The exhaustion is so sharp and sudden that even two words are an effort.

"You passed out," Felix says, "only for a few seconds. But then—I don't know, something was different. Kraden said you had a seizure?"

"I tried to read your mind to see what was going on, but I couldn't get in at first," Ivan says, and he sounds tired too, but Sheba notes he's not displaying the signs of Psynergy overuse like Felix is. "They told me you'd been passing out, but since it was different this time maybe that means you stopped it yourself."

"Had enough," she says, managing to lift her shoulder in an approximation of a shrug. Felix slides his hand under her shoulders to help her sit up, and the rest of the group carefully shifts backward to give her some room. Any movement makes her head spin, and she's sure the discomfort shows on her face.

"Enough?" Piers echoes, smiling fondly with a shake of his head. "Only our Sheba could decide she's had enough of mysteriously fainting and speaking in tongues."

"I don't blame you, it sounds exhausting," Ivan says.

Mia gently shoulders her way through the others and kneels in front of Sheba. "Can you follow my finger with your eyes without moving your head?"

Sheba does, and Mia nods, apparently satisfied. "Great job, everything looks normal. Thank goodness you didn't hit your head when you fell. Is it okay if I heal you? That might help you not to feel so tired."

Sheba nods, and Mia presses a hand to her forehead to allow her Psynergy to do its work. It kicks in almost immediately, the fog of exhaustion lifting from her mind, and she stops leaning so heavily on Felix to sit up.

"How long was I out, including the seizure?" she asks, and Mia shrugs.

"Maybe a few minutes? We all came up when Felix called."

"Really?" Sheba says excitedly, turning to look at Felix so quickly that her head spins again for a moment. "We're not days behind?"

"No, but you scared the hell out of me," he says bluntly, squeezing her shoulder.

"I didn't recognize you," she remembers. "It was so strange, I could feel that there was something familiar but…it was like I'd never heard your name or your voice before."

"You were still fighting the power of the Anemos," Ivan says. "So it was easy for you and I to connect, but much harder for Felix to join in."

"You could tell it was Anemos, too? I know I had some kind of a vision, or _something_ to do with them, but I'm struggling..."

"Yeah, I definitely felt it but I didn't get any unusual presence. Whatever it was probably protected itself."

"Hama knows something… She said I'm different. But we didn't have time for her to tell me the rest, she just said she'd explain it all when we came back from lighting Mars."

Garet scoffs. "Man, screw her. She left Ivan out in the dust and then she has to go and be all mysterious with you? Jupiter Adepts are the worst." Mia elbows him, but he just throws his hands out. "I'm right, though!"

"When you passed out before," Piers says, "what sort of things did you see? I could understand a bit of what you were saying, thanks to my education in Ancient Lemurian, but Anemosian and Lemurian cultures didn't have much in common."

"It was usually visions of things that would happen later on," she says. "The first time, I saw Babi's men coming to take me away, and a few moments from Venus Lighthouse. Then the second time it was Jupiter Lighthouse—running to get to the fight on the aerie, seeing Alex. Stuff like that."

"Gross," Jenna says, and that startles a laugh out of Sheba.

"But Piers," Sheba says, "what was I saying? I don't actually speak Ancient Anemosian, or at least I never learned it… I could read signs and things without even trying."

"Nothing that made sense," Piers said, shaking his head apologetically. "Something about the moon, I think."

Sheba tilts her head back, trying to locate the moon in the sky, but it's hidden behind some clouds for the moment. "Maybe it's like with the werewolves in Garoh," she says. "They were so close to Air's Rock, which gave them the power of Jupiter Psynergy, but also turned them into werewolves when the moonlight hit them."

"That's right," Kraden says. "We know Jupiter is connected to our moon in some way…"

"What if our moon wasn't actually a moon," Sheba says. "What if it was Anemos? Anemos harnessed the power of Jupiter in ways that only Jupiter Adepts can be affected by. Air's Rock works the same way, but on a smaller scale."

Isaac tilts his head, considering. "Well, since Anemos lifted off, and you fell from the sky... That adds up, I guess."

"Maybe someone threw me off," Sheba muses, staring up at the sky. "Maybe they thought I was needed here."

"I wonder who," Ivan says. "I wonder if your parents knew, or if it was some kind of ritual. It seems crazy, to do that with a baby…"

"And I wonder how that explains my visions," Sheba says. "They seemed so random, but if what we're thinking is true, maybe they've been watching over me. Like they're trying to protect me or warn me."

All of them stare up at the moon, in quiet contemplation.

Sheba remembers the third fainting spell, after she'd read the sign in Contigo without needing the translation. She could have sworn she heard the voice of a woman, saying something about a daughter. Had she been referring to Sheba herself? Was the vision not from the future, but instead from her past? Her memories of being an infant?

Her only real consolation was that the woman in her memories had sounded quite distraught. She probably hadn't wanted to give Sheba up.

"But wait," Garet says, and they all turn to him. "So if that spot next to Contigo lifted up and became the moon, which is also Anemos...that means the moon is flat, too, right?"

"That's _all_ you got from that?!" Jenna exclaims, and the somber quiet is broken by their laughter. Sheba can almost feel the way everyone else on deck relaxes, crisis averted, and Piers waves Garet over to help him raise the anchor.

As the ship begins to move again, Sheba looks back up at Felix.

"Are you okay?"

"Better now," he admits. "But more importantly, what about _you? _I was terrified."

"I'm fine," she says. "Really, I feel way better now. I just..." She pauses, chewing on her lip. "I know I had a vision or something. It had to do with the Anemos, it was important!"

"You'll remember," he says, so confident that she immediately feels relieved even though she's not fully convinced.

"How can you be so sure?"

"If it was that big of a deal, I know you will. It might be in another dream, or you might pass out again, but at least this time we'll know what to look out for."

"I don't want to hold you up again," she says, and he grins.

"You won't, I promise. At least we know we don't need to stop anymore if you pass out, you'll wake up eventually and be fine. And you know, I said I'd get you home, but after all this is over… Maybe we should travel."

"Both of us?" she asks, leaning against his side.

"Yeah. We could find out about your past, without all this added pressure from the lighthouses."

Sheba thinks about it for a moment. "Yeah, I think I'd like that. But you know, it's kind of weird… You know how before I was telling you that I don't feel like I'd feel right going back to Lalivero?"

"The same way I'd feel wrong going back to Vale," Felix says, nodding.

"Even if we did find Anemos, or my real parents, or whatever, I don't think I'd want to stay with them. I want to do something for myself. I don't want Anemos to tell me where I'm supposed to go, I just want to let it happen. I want—I want to be _here_," she realizes, and makes a sort of all-encompassing gesture at their friends, new and old, spread out across the ship.

"So that settles it, then," Felix says, squeezing her shoulder. "We'll travel, find out as much as we can, and then come back to the others."

"Are you okay with that?" Sheba asks. "I know it's difficult with Isaac and Garet…"

They both pause as Isaac and Jenna sit down a few yards away on the deck, Isaac's hand landing too casually next to, but not quite on top of, Jenna's. Sheba smirks.

"They seem to have warmed up to you fine," he says. "And we were friends, before all this. So—ugh, here I go again, feeling optimistic."

Sheba grins. "So, what?"

"So, we'll warm up to each other. I don't think it'll be like it was before the storm, but we're older now. So it would've been different anyway. It might take a while, and we're still going to get on each other's nerves, but... I think things will work out." He pauses, and then nudges Sheba gently. "Hey, I think he finally went for it."

Sheba follows his gaze, and realizes that yes, at some point Isaac had finally grabbed Jenna's hand. She nudges him back. "And?"

The corner of Felix's mouth quirks up. "Isaac, careful with that hand," he calls, and Isaac jerks his hand away as Jenna collapses in laughter. After a moment Isaac laughs too, rolls his eyes, and takes Jenna's hand properly.

"See? We're friends already," Felix says, and Sheba giggles.

"You'll get there eventually," she says, and he nods, tilting his head so they can look each other in the eyes.

"Right now, at least, I think I'm all good."

"Me, too," she says, bumping her nose against his until he kisses her. She might not have perfect answers, but she's got clues. She might not have a flesh-and-blood family, but somehow, she'd found another family of her own anyway.


End file.
